


Gavin: AfterLife

by JiangShi, KirstyOpal



Category: Mr. Love Queen's Choice - Fandom, 恋与制作人 | Liàn Yǔ Zhì Zuò Rén | Mr. Love: Queen's Choice (Video Game)
Genre: Apocalypse, F/M, Oral Sex, Post-Apocalypse, Rough Kissing, Rough Sex, Strong Language, Teasing, Unsafe Sex, Vaginal Sex, Virus, safe sex
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-04-06
Updated: 2020-12-08
Packaged: 2021-03-02 00:28:25
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 13
Words: 84,065
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23516194
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JiangShi/pseuds/JiangShi, https://archiveofourown.org/users/KirstyOpal/pseuds/KirstyOpal
Summary: The world had come to an end and the very few survivors are either locked up in bunkers, unable to go out without risking their life, or dealing with the newest threat: Mutants. Out of these survivors roaming the deserted lands, Gavin, ex-police officer and undercover Evol agent for the STF (Special Task Force) is on a mission to find a vaccine that was supposedly conceived and stored somewhere by the organization responsible of the outbreak. He surprisingly stumbles on quite a... special young woman. She tags along, but will they find what Gavin is looking for? Is there any hope for the remaining survivors? Or are they condemned to die from the consequences of that terrible virus Black Swan spread all over the world?If you are 18+, consider joining our MLQC server =) : https://discord.gg/sn45jhB
Relationships: Bái Qǐ | Gavin/Original Female Character(s)
Comments: 40
Kudos: 101





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

  * For [JustKiddun](https://archiveofourown.org/users/JustKiddun/gifts), [Sythia](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sythia/gifts).

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> !!Warning!!Warning!!Warning!!
> 
> Hi there! I know we are going through rough times all around the world because of COVID19 and that this fanfic might seem inappropriate since it refers to a virus causing the apocalypse. However, i started writing this long before COVID19 was first mentioned in the International News and I'm writing this note to let you know about this beforehand. If you have any triggers related to the virus or feel uneasy about it, please refrain from reading this work. Thank you for taking this in consideration xxx
> 
> Jiang Shi

**Prologue**

It started as a flu... A fucking flu. People were sick somewhere and then, over the course of a few weeks, people were sick everywhere. All over the world. Adults, kids and elders, there was no distinctions between the victims at first, Yes, victims. Because the infected started to die after a month or two, I can't remember it clearly. All of this was so surreal... Even today, I can't believe it really happened.

At this point, people had long been confined home and they were rumors about people sealing themselves into bunkers here and there. But of course, there was no room for us, ahaha. It still brings a bitter taste to my mouth... Outcasts, weirdos, poorer social classes and many other individuals that wouldn't fit the elite mold were left behind. The only exceptions to that rule were those Preppers with their private bunkers. But once again, there wasn't enough room for everyone, and sacrifices had to be made...

Things kept going down for the rest of us. More and more people were dying and we even heard rumors about monsters. Monsters. Nobody took that seriously. If only we knew... It really got harder from there. The death rate was going through the roof and it left huge gaps everywhere. Food was barely reaching grocery stores anymore, along with many other things we didn’t even know we were needing. Gas stations were closing one after the others because the tanks were slowly emptied, one by one. Trashes were piling up everywhere in the city and, when it got very bad, even bodies weren’t being picked up anymore.

However, I naively thought I was kinda lucky. I had a really restrained social circle and nobody was dead or sick even in what was obviously the dawn of humanity. What a fucking dumbass… We were starting to hear about what was first taken as pure nonsense on the few remaining medias. These stories about monsters were still up in the news, despite no one being able to prove anything, but now we were also told about what they named “ _Evolvers”_ and were given reports about some shady organization known as “ _Black Swan”._ And that’s about when the first of us got sick.

It fell on our small group like the cruel reminder it was. But we were a family. None of us were related by blood, but we had been together long before this whole fucking mess even started. Before we could even process the thing, he was gone. And it wasn’t possible to give him a proper burial anymore… We were outcasts, but he deserved to be laid to rest like any other human being. All we could do was to bury him in his parent’s backyard. They were gone, along with his siblings, long before him, when bodies were still being taken care of. It was hard, for all the rest of us, to leave the house that day, knowing we weren’t coming back. Ever. Years ago, we promised each others we would stick together, that we’d never be alone anymore and that no one would be left behind. However, that’s what we fucking did, like the god damn lost souls we were. We left him. Alone.

As If this wasn’t enough already, things sped up after that. Medias disappeared, from the newspapers and TV news reports to, lastly, radio broadcasts, we were soon completely left in the dark about what was happening. But it’s not like if we weren’t aware of what was waiting for us now. We could easily guess we weren’t going to make it out of this. And that’s what happened. I watched as the rest of us got sick and died. Taking care of them as they were fading away wasn’t going to save them. I knew that very well. But I couldn’t do anything else. I didn’t tell anyone before, not even then. I couldn’t tell them. It was too cruel… I didn’t know what I was exactly before this outbreak, but I was one of these Evolvers. Like they said in the news, I was going to survive all of my friends, because Evolvers were apparently immune to the virus. I went back to the useless, spineless piece of shit I was as a kid and told them everything was going to be alright…

Since I ditched my name to use that nickname I was given somewhere along my teenage years, I had never felt so weak. I buried them, one after the other, where I could and hoped the virus would get me somehow. I waited for my turn… But it never came. At that moment, I thought it was the worst part of this whole apocalypse. Never fucking been so wrong...


	2. A year after

Seasons had passed since the girl last met another human being. Well… any living one, because in terms of bodies, she had her share. Even though a year and a half had gone by since the world started to crumble, the young woman was still often stumbling upon a corpse or two and, sometimes, a bunch of them. It wasn’t really surprising when humanity had been reduced to so few individuals over a few months. It had been nightmare material at first, but she quickly got used to it. She had better things to do, such as ensuring her own survival. 

One hundred and fifty-five (155) centimeters or so, petite and delicate, her survival might seem surprising at first, but a closer look gave a completely different story. Despite being thin, her body was well-toned even if her muscles weren’t particularly noticeable. However, strength was obviously not her main assets. She mostly oriented her strategy towards speed, agility and stealth. It served her well apparently. She wasn’t starving, but a few more pounds wouldn’t hurt either. Before the shit hit the fan and slightly modified her shape, she must’ve had one of those bodies that had men drooling at first sight. A body, just curvy enough in the right places, that made women jealous. But today, her breasts were probably a tad smaller than they used to be and her hip bones were slightly apparent on her thin and slender frame. She was obviously not trained to fight,avoiding every possible altercation was her usual tactic, but her light and vivid sage green eyes didn’t show a single ounce of fear. 

She had beautiful features, but she would’ve been even prettier without that rough, fierce and combative expression on her face. She probably wore heavy makeup back in the days, when an apocalypse was nothing more than a movie scenario. However, her dense eyelashes alone were enough to give her that once popular smokey-eyes look. A thick Dutch braid on the top of her head, the rest of her long raven hair was tightly tied into a high ponytail, falling down the middle of her back in a waterfall of dark messy waves. 

The young woman was mostly wearing what she wore the day constant travelling became essential to her survival… that more or less coincided with the mutants apparition in her city. A not so white anymore shirt with black printings that faded away long ago, under a red woolen plaid jacket and a black waxed cotton field coat kept her warm enough for the southern winters. She doubted it would be enough now that searching for food and avoiding danger pushed her far up north, but she still had a few weeks to find something more suitable to the upcoming season. The girl kinda regretted her fashion choices in the beginning, but since they were actually appropriate to the weather, she kept her thin burgundy leggings, to which she added a pair of black thigh high socks. Three thin white stripes circling her thighs were the only distinctive mark on them. Finally, only by pure sense of fashion, she was also wearing a short black cotton skirt over her stockings. Sometimes, when she passed by her reflection in a dirty piece of glass or a waterhole, she couldn’t help but snarl at how ridiculous it looked now… but back then, that punkish style was all she could identify herself to. Her outfit was completed with a black pair of leather boots, with ten (10) centimeters high large square heels and a military look even if it was purely aesthetic once again. Since her footwear wasn’t exactly appropriate, she did try a few pair of shoes deemed more practical along her travels when she found some, but none ever felt as comfortable as her good ol’ boots. 

The girl had been walking a lot that day and the days before. The last town she stopped by was almost a week behind her now. Her provisions were running low and she could easily enjoy a roof over her head for a night or two. She had just entered a small rural town, so small people were probably referring to it as a village, back when there was still people to talk with, when the outline of a General Store appeared in her line of sight. A cocky grin stretched her pulpy lips. She steadied her backpack on her shoulder and sped up the pace. That’s exactly what she was looking for. 

However, she didn’t rush in either. If she survived more than a year and a half all by herself, it’s because she was smart. No matter how reckless she was, she always knew every possible escape route she could use if things took a turn for the worse. The young woman closed in, meticulously inspecting the building and its surroundings, establishing an exhaustive mental list of any potential exits, hideouts and scavenging locations. After drawing a complete circle around the store, the girl could reach anything on her list in a split second if she needed. She made sure the building was completely empty, not wanting to be surprised by any unwanted companions once she would be inside. She trotted back to the front door, her back to the wall and looked over her shoulder to take one last look inside before entering the building. Behind the broken storefront window, everything seemed perfectly calm despite the mess, the overturned shelves and the different items scattered everywhere on the ground. The door laid on the sidewalk, its hinges twisted. Something obviously happened here, but with the good amount of dust all over the place, nothing moved in a long time. Without a single sound, the pretty and young woman jumped through the wide hole left in the damaged window with the agility of a cat. She quietly landed on broken glass, just like if they weren’t there. Over the months she spent into the wild, she had become a real ghost, some untouchable shadow mutants would barely notice. 

Her bright green gaze scanned the room and her assertive smile lit up her otherwise stern face again. There was enough food here to fill at the very least three large backpacks like the one she was carrying up to the brim. She’d have way more than enough. Picking up a bag of chips at her feet, she proceeded to scout the place thoroughly, quickly gathering and packing what she would bring along with her. She was almost done, her pack filled with only the most nutritious items she could find, when a faint noise outside the store interrupted her. The girl froze, listening attentively until she heard the noise again. Someone, or something, was walking on the glass shards before the window she came in through. It could only mean one thing… the intruder was already in the store with her! As fast as she could, she ducked under a shelving unit leaning against the wall, providing her a satisfying hiding place. She could hear footsteps roaming around, getting dangerously close before they finally went to the other side of the room. The pretty raven haired girl, kneeling in dust and dirt, was holding her breath. She was almost sure the newcomer wasn’t a mutant, as those produced weird noises specific to the kind of abomination it was that now walked the earth with her. However, besides the footsteps, everything remained silent. Breathing out slowly, the girl moved towards the side of the shelving unit, on all fours. She peeped at her unexpected visitor from the shadows of her hiding spot. She wouldn’t leave it without being sure the other person in the room wasn’t a threat for her. Since every law enforcement organization disappeared at some point, some individuals were abandoning their moral compasses to walk the easy way… or just for fun. Most of the groups she passed by had some disturbing habits she couldn’t stand with. Thankfully, she spent days observing each group before revealing her presence…

The footsteps came back her way and a man appeared in front of her, unaware she was hiding right next to him. The girl took a slow and quiet step back, making sure he wouldn’t be able to see her, but kept looking at him more attentively.

It was a young man, probably a little over the mid-twenties, with short chestnut hair. For now, all she could see was his back and shoulders under a police uniform, the kind they were wearing in the intervention unit. She presumed he was probably fit underneath his clothes. Black military boots, black camouflage printed cargo pants and black short sleeves dress shirt, tucked under a bulletproof vest… he had the whole outfit. The girl could even guess the shape of a holstered gun at his hip. Before the outbreak, she would’ve probably trusted the man – as much as she could trust anyone – right away despite her global disdain towards cops. She hadn't particularly given a damn about staying within the lines back then...However, there were more than just cops that were wearing this kind of thing nowadays. It turned out some survivors managed to find some, and they weren’t necessarily good people… In fact, since survivors adopted a nomad lifestyle, every “cop” she met, if spying on people from afar can be considered as meeting, were in fact untrained, normal people… or ex-criminals. Her mistrusting nature saved her from a few unpleasant encounters. 

However, something about that man was telling her he might not have stolen that outfit and equipment. Yeah… That’s it! He was standing like a cop! His entire body language was leading her to think the man in front of her was probably a police officer before civilization’s demise. Yet she wasn’t ready to reveal her presence, cop or not. Besides, others survivors were the second major threat after mutants in the post-apocalyptic world. 

Suddenly, what sounded like heavy, dinosaur heavy, footsteps could be heard in the distance. The girl was about to crawl back further in her improvised shelter but stopped midway, one of her dark brows raised high above her vibrant green eyes. Any remaining survivors knew by now what kind of creature was massive enough to be heard from afar… and would already be running. But that man? That man just stood there, unbothered. Was he crazy? No one would stand a chance against what was coming their way. If the man was still standing there when the Tanky (that’s how the girl named them after she saw one) walked past the store, they were sure to be in for a disaster. The mutant would burst through the wall like it was nothing but paper if he was to notice them and the confined space they were in would prevent them avoiding its attacks. Whatever that man had in mind, it wasn’t going to happen. The footsteps kept growing louder and louder. If she wished to do something, it was now or never. With the speed and the agility of a wild cat, the girl jumped out of the shadows, right behind the man and, standing on the very tip of her toes, covered his mouth with the palm of her hand to keep him from making any sound. The mutant was close enough to hear them and the slightest gasp could end their life on the spot. She did her best to drag the strong man under the shelving unit with her, which wasn’t exactly easy. He was, at the very least, twenty (20) centimeters taller than her and the surprise had him fighting her grip a little, until he realized was she was trying to do. Thankfully, he did it pretty fast. Huddled together, they waited in complete silence as the mutant passed by.

Peeping through the opening on the side, the girl could see the mountain of muscles slowly walking by the store front, one heavy footstep after the other. The creature’s skin was gray, maybe a little greenish, and it was so bulky it was impossible to determine if it had a neck or not. Veins were running everywhere on its hypertrophied body. Once human, it had nothing to do with a man anymore. Its face had human features, but even there, it was altered in some horrible ways. It’s mouth had no lips, fully exposing its teeth and gums, and its eyes looked like two slits that would turn out to be some kind of endless pit of darkness. In those eyes, there were no emotions, no lights nor signs of life. There was nothing human there. The lack of emotions from this type of mutant the girl referred to as Tankies took many by surprise when they were still making their first appearances in the different cities. They turned out to be extremely aggressive despite their inexpressive look. Their hands were so large and strong that only one of them would be enough to crush a man's skull. And they were twice as tall as the average man… they were obviously meant to be the sheer expression of strength and brutal force. Despite these quite unequivocal and important facts, the guy she was sharing the little space she had in her hiding spot intended to wait for it? He was obviously brain damaged if he thought he could fight that thing and get out of it alive, and she would’ve ended up being caught in the middle of a battle she would’ve easily avoided otherwise. 

As the heavy footsteps faded away, the girl took a closer look at the man next to her. She realized her arm was still circling his neck and her hand covering his mouth. When he looked back at her, she was taken aback by the unique pair of eyes before her. His amber colored irises seemed to be glowing in the dim light of their hideout like molten gold. The girl quickly removed her hand, as if the contact of their skin suddenly started to burn, and left a large trace of dust on his chin. He wiped it with the back of his hand and opened his mouth to say something, an unreadable look in his eyes, but was stopped in his tracks by the girl’s furious whispers. 

\- What the fuck is wrong with you!? Are you dumb or something? Don’t tell me you didn’t hear that coming! Even my deaf uncle would’ve god damn known!

The man looked at her and arched a brow. His expression was firm but the golden glow in his eyes was calm and confident. 

\- Where did you come from? He said.

The girl’s jaw dropped for a second. The man just completely ignored everything she had been saying to ask her that stupid question? She angrily pointed at the ground below them.

\- From exactly where your ass is right now!

The man didn’t seemed to be impressed by her irritated tone or derisive answer. He kept looking at her, right in her vibrant sage green eyes, and asked another question. 

\- What were you doing here?

His tone was just as composed and undisturbed as it was before, and the young woman with the long black hair couldn’t help but feel even more annoyed. It was another stupid question with an obvious answer that could be answered later and she was about to lose her shit. She gestured vividly in the very little space available. 

\- Are you fucking serious? You’re asking me what-

She stopped in the middle of her sentence, puffed her cheeks with an angry growl and quickly got out of the space between the tipped over shelves and the wall. One more second huddled together with that man and his questions and she would’ve hit him. The pretty girl stretched her back a little, her arms extended over her head and her hands joined together, then picked up the backpack she dropped on the ground when she heard the man coming earlier. The man exited the dark and dusty space he was dragged in earlier and was soon standing next to her. As she previously estimated it, he was considerably taller and more imposing than her. However, it didn’t stop her from turning around and pointing a finger at his chest. 

\- Now you’re going to stop with the fucking interrogation and answer my question, you prick, she snarled. I'm not answering any of your stupid questions until you do anyway.

Despite the exasperation in her voice, the man didn’t bat an eye and simply waited for her to keep going.

\- Who are you and what the actual fuck do you think you were doing? She said, crossing her arms under her breast.

\- My name is Gavin. I was trying to find something to eat, he answered as he placed a hand on his hip over his holstered gun, his other arm nonchalantly placed along his body.

The young woman sighed heavily. Well… she could’ve figured that part out alone. It wasn’t exactly the answer she was waiting for. 

\- Yeah, right… Well, Gavin, were you fucking trying to get yourself killed? she said, insisting on his name.

Gavin, as he introduced himself, let out a sigh too, closing those hypnotic golden eyes for a second, and stared right back at the girl when he opened them again. 

\- I would’ve handled it if you weren’t there.

The confidence in his voice almost threw the young woman off her feet. He couldn’t be serious, right? Tankies weren’t taken down easily, but apparently, this man didn’t care. However the wild raven haired lady had something else to clarify. 

\- Well, in case you didn’t realize, I was there first! She ranted. And you almost got me into a fight I wasn’t intending to be a part of, jerk!

This time, Gavin’s unwavering confidence seemed to falter. He averted his gaze and ran a hand through his hair. For a split second, the girl in front of him was convinced she saw his ears turning red. If her beautiful face wasn’t already occupied by that ice-cold expression of anger, that cocky smile of hers would make its way back to her luscious raspberry red lips. 

\- I’m sorry, Gavin said. I didn’t know you were there until you dragged me down.

\- Yeah, whatever… What a cop…

She rolled her eyes, letting some steam out. It’s been a while since the last time she met another survivor, and she should try not to scare him off right away. He could be useful somehow. The encounters were frequent in the first few months, but they gradually rarefied until it got impossible for her to know if there was actually other survivors out there. However, her rude manners had nothing to do with the amount of time she had spent alone. As long as she could remember, she had always been that “amiable” with strangers. 

\- And… What’s your name?

Gavin had spoken in a friendlier tone, leaving some of the cop attitude behind, but the raven haired girl wasn’t ready to let go of her grudge yet. 

\- Why would I tell you? She said bitterly, locking her sage green eyes to the gold of Gavin’s irises.

The man’s ears weren’t showing any hint of red anymore, but he didn’t seem completely at ease either. The young woman’s hostile attitude wasn’t exactly surprising, but it wasn’t pleasant either. 

\- Well.. I told you mine, he answered casually.

The pretty girl turned her head the other way in a swift movement, the waterfall of raven hair behind her head whipping around. She closed her eyes, her long, voluminous eyelashes caressing her finely chiseled cheek bones. She took a deep breath and opened her eyes again, uncrossing her arms. The young woman shifted her weight onto one foot as her hip was sticking out on the side. She placed a hand on that hip, her other arm furiously dangling on her side, and stared right back to him. Her tone seemed softer somehow, but she remained the feisty girl she had been from the beginning.

\- You can call me Tennessee, I guess…

The amber of Gavin’s eyes twitched as he raised a brow, skeptical. 

\- That’s your name? He said in a doubtful tone.

\- No but that’s the one I’m using, she answered, lifting her chin up in a sign of defiance.

\- What kind of name is that?

Gavin suppressed a chuckle, pressing his closed fist on his lips. It was obvious by now that this girl had quite a temper. She kept surprising him with her straightforward attitude and her circumspection. After such a long time out in the wild, most survivors would’ve been pleased to stumble on another living being that didn’t actually turned into some kind of nightmarish creature. But this girl? She was keeping safe distances and was openly not trusting him. 

\- The kind I’ll let you call me.

Her answer was cold as ice, leaving no room for any further questions about her name. It was Tennessee, take it or leave it. Apparently, Gavin was intending to take it. 

\- So where were you going?

Tennessee didn’t answer right away. She stared at him for a moment, one of her ebony black brow highly raised on her fair skin. Her vivid green eyes lingered on the man with a sharp expression, just like if he said something completely incoherent or stupid. Tennessee clenched the fist that was hanging on her side and internally told herself not to be rude when she answered...but quickly gave up on that because why would she care anyway?

\- First, I told you to stop with your incessant questions! She snarled. Secondly, I’m not going anywhere. I go where I need to go in order to survive.

She paused for a few seconds and the sharpness in her eyes gradually disappeared, quickly replaced by a mischievously playful look.

\- But you seem to be heading somewhere, aren’t you?

She had spoken in a surprisingly soft, but impish, tone. In the bat of an eye, she went from a growling rabid dog to a cunning and cheeky fairy looking for the first opportunity to outsmart the man before her. However, Gavin wasn’t discomfited yet. 

\- I was following a lead about the actual location of a possible serum able to neutralize mutants and a vaccine that should prevent Non-Evolvers from getting sick and Evolvers from turning into mutants. The last clues I found had me heading towards a nearby CDC center.

The man’s tone was so serious and declarative that Tennessee was now completely sure he was a cop before. She doubted he was at first when his ears turned red, but there was no doubt anymore. This was the kind of attitude only a cop or a similar kind of officer could have. Gavin was, without a doubt, trained for this kind of interventions. She couldn’t tell if that training was military or simply the one given to police forces, but she was determined to know and she wanted to know now.

\- So you’re a cop, eh? She said with a smirk, pretty proud of her own perspicacity.

The molten gold in the man’s eyes froze solid. There was no way to tell if it did out of surprise or if some painful memories were resurfacing in his mind, but Gavin quickly pulled himself together and answered with a disturbingly neutral tone. 

\- I was.

Before she could say anything else, the man’s stomach growled like a dinosaur. Probably a T-Rex. A starving T-Rex. The sound was so loud in fact that the dinosaur was probably on steroids too. Gavin must’ve been really hungry. Despite her rough exterior, Tennessee wasn’t heartless either.. She lowered her backpack on her shoulder and took out an aluminum can. Its label was half gone and it was impossible to know what was inside. Of course, Tennessee knew, but she wasn’t intending to tell him yet. 

\- Alright, alright… she said with the same naughtily playful voice. Answer one quick question and this is yours.

Gavin nodded. There was barely anything left in the store and the remaining items wouldn’t be as satisfying as the meal the girl offered. Tennessee winked at him. She had the upper hand and she liked that.

\- You wouldn’t happen to have another of these vest or know where I could find one, do you?

She pointed at the bulletproof vest he was wearing. Even if there weren’t that many survivors left and it was nearly impossible to stumble on more people, it may come in handy. Most of the survivors she met before were armed, just like Gavin, but they were way less friendly than he was. The world was now embracing a brand new lifestyle: the survival of the fittest. Gavin's ears slowly turned red and he looked away, but he could still feel Tennessee’s sage green gaze on him.

\- Eeehh… I could give you mine, he said, visibly out of options.

The girl shook her head, accompanying the move with a flick of her hand.

\- Nah, keep it, she replied. I wouldn’t want to be the reason why you’d end up with a bullet in your chest.

As she said that, the pretty girl threw the can at him, without a warning. Naturally, Gavin’s reflexes were on point and he caught it easily. He completed his end of the deal and she fulfilled hers. 

\- Thanks.

Tennessee answered with another flick of her hand and turned around to look at the broken storefront window. The sun had begun its daily descent and, at this time of the year, the last ray of light would be gone soon. She sighed, a bit disappointed and wrapped a lock of her miraculously soft and smooth raven hair around her index finger. It was too late to go out and look for another suitable place to spend the night and now that the Tanky had passed by them, this general store was already safer than any other shelter she could find before dark. Tankies, unless drawn by noises or human sight, were always walking straight forward. They weren’t exactly geniuses, nor the smartest type of mutant around… However, being out at night was too dangerous. Mutant activity was increasing from dusk til dawn and they were harder to detect. Yes, even Tankies. The best option was always to stay in for the night, which meant Tennessee would need to spend the night with her “friend”. A pout on her luscious lips, she turned around to look at Gavin.

\- We should block the door and the window before it gets too dark outside, she said reluctantly.

Gavin walked up to her and looked at the store front for a moment. He took a few steps forward then turned back to her.

\- We could place the shelving units in front of them. It might not be solid enough to keep one of those mountains from coming in, but it’s enough to keep the others out. If we’re lucky, the big ones might just pass by since they won’t be able to see us, like their friend did earlier, he suggested.

\- Yeah… Tankies are far from being smart, but they’re extremely territorial. There’s probably no other Tanky around for miles, and since they’re pretty much always walking forward the one we saw shouldn’t be coming back.

\- What did you call them? Gavin asked, dumbfounded.

He had a puzzled expression on his face now. Of course, he had no idea what a Tanky was, since Tennessee gave them that name herself. A brow arched high above his amber eyes, the man tilted his head on the side and he suddenly looked more like a puppy than a police officer in the girl’s mind right now. She rolled her eyes and sighed.

\- A Tanky. Tankies, she answered, like if it was obvious.

Gavin’s incomprehension seemed to deepen, unsure about what he should understand from all this.

\- Giving them a name like that, do you uhhh... think they’re cute or something?

This time, Tennessee was the one with a confused expression. What was wrong with that guy? The gorgeous raven haired girl’s face was back to it’s combative look and she crossed her arms back under her breast.

\- Don’t make me throw you outside.

Her answer was sharp, curt and rude, making it obvious she wouldn’t hesitate to do so if he was taking this any further. Gavin shrugged his shoulders, not quite sure about what he should be thinking, a confused look on his face. Tennessee sighed and walked towards the shelves by the window. 

\- Let’s do this… before I change my mind, she muttered.

Working together to move the heavy shelving units, it wasn’t long before they were completely blocking the broken window and the torn apart door. Once done, the young woman went back to her pack and took out a lamp. It was a camping lamp, a sturdy and well-built one, standing on a wide base. It was solar powered and Tennessee had it fully charged in the the day. She was keeping it for nights like this. A night where she would probably not be sleeping at all, on her guard in a confined space with someone she wasn't trusting yet. It was probably the same for Gavin, but the pretty girl couldn't see any equipment with him, beside his gun and what he was wearing. She didn't ask about it though, since she couldn't care less. There was so many things that could be happening to one's supplies in this new world... and there was nothing more anxiogenic and irritating than not being able to recover them. Maybe that's what happened to Gavin and why he was here actually? 

In other circumstances, Tennessee would've unpacked her sleeping bag and built herself a pretty little nest in a corner of the room to rest until the sun rises. But since she had company, she got completely thrown off of her habits. She just sat on the ground, her backpack between her back and the wall, and Gavin did the same, resting his back on the opposite wall, facing her. 

None of them said anything for a long time and the man opened the can he was given with his combat knife. It contained some unidentifiable mixture and Gavin looked at the raven haired girl with a confused look, a hint of pink appearing on his ears. He definitely had something to say but was also somehow hesitant. 

\- Speak, she said, lifting her head to lay her vivid green gaze on him.

\- Is this dog food? He asked after a while, his ears turning bright red now.

Tennessee didn't move. Her reactions were usually pretty strong, but this time she barely blinked. 

\- Why don't you taste it and find out? 

Gavin lowered his head, flustered.

\- Why can't she just give me a straight answer for once? He muttered under his breath.

Tennessee's body stiffened and her nonchalant attitude disappeared. Her sage green eyes, previously calm and undisturbed, lit up with a glint of warning. 

\- What was that? She barked. You're not hungry anymore? I'll eat it if you don't want it.

She wasn't even done speaking that Gavin was having his first bite. A smirk appeared on her pretty face, telling the man he should be a little more suspicious about her. However, he ate the whole thing. Dog food or not, he was starving. When was the last time he had a meal before this one? Thankfully, the young woman had some mercy despite her weird sense of humor because, even if she would absolutely not tell the man, what she gave him was actually canned chili. Why would she care about telling him when she could have some fun? It's not like she was planning to stick with him... Or maybe she should? Since she had no real destination, anywhere was fine for her and following him on his journey may not be a bad idea. She could use the extra help on scavenging runs... and taking turns on watch duty would allow her a little more sleep, which was a pretty interesting perspective. Of course, this would only be possible if she could trust him. But this wasn't exactly done yet. Even if she felt like Gavin was potentially trustworthy, she was alive in this mess because of her mistrusting nature. 

\- So, was it dog food? She scoffed when he put the empty can down.

Even though it was now completely dark outside and the light provided by the lamp wasn’t sufficient to illuminate the whole space, Tennessee saw the man’s ears turn bright red. She was making a habit out of provoking him. The girl smiled as she witnessed the confusion she was causing him. She always liked to see how people were destabilized by the slightest thing she could say. 

\- Well... I don’t think it tasted like dog food, Gavin said timidly. But I never had dog food. And I was so hungry I might have given it a better taste than it had.

Tennessee chuckled softly. It was probably not his goal, but the man could be funny in the end. However, every good thing must come to an end at some point. 

\- I hope you’re not thinking I would keep dog food in my own supplies? She said, falsely offended.

Gavin blushed even more and looked away, without answering. Her mocking smile floated on her luscious raspberry lips a little longer, and then Tennessee opened her bag again. She pulled out a small package of crackers and a water canteen she picked up in an abandoned military camp before it was completely looted. She opened the bag and ate a little, maybe half of what the bag contained, and had a little water. Everything seemed to be calculated or thought of, and she did it so often by now than it was literally encoded in her brain. The girl put her things back in her backpack and lifted her head up, catching Gavin’s amber eyes lingering on her. She was about to call him out about it, with her usual rudeness, but he spoke first.

\- You seem to know a lot about mutants, he said, looking at her straight in the eyes, with the confidence he had in the very beginning.

Tennessee was a bit surprised by the new expression on his face. He wasn’t the poor little confused thing he was a few moments ago, nor the cop he was when they first met, but he somehow looked more assured. He just seemed... interested and sure about himself. As she was looking at him some more, the young woman couldn’t help but think he was kinda pleasant to look at. Besides those mesmerizing golden eyes, slightly almond shaped, he had a finely chiseled nose and cheekbones over a mouth many girls must’ve been dying to kiss back then. A sharp but masculine jawline along with a fine chin, he was undeniably a pretty handsome man. A little flustered for once, the pretty girl averted her gaze in order to hide her trouble from Gavin. However, she didn’t forget what he just said. 

\- I spent a lot of time watching them...

But that’s all she answered. She wouldn’t tell him observation was essential for her since she was not particularly strong and that agility alone wouldn’t be enough to stay out of trouble sometimes. She wouldn’t tell him she watched from afar, without intervening as other groups dealt with them. She wouldn’t tell him about the atrocious nightmares she had until she knew every little details about the monsters behavioral patterns either. Why? Because she always had been kinda secretive, but also because it was a little too much information for her to share and anything she said could potentially be used against her someday. Instead, she looked at Gavin a little more, and, noticing he had nothing more to say, Tennessee rested her head against the cold wall behind her. She breathed in deeply and slowly breathed out, releasing some tension from her body. The night would already be long enough without her few precious hours of sleep, she didn’t need to add a sore body to the list of unpleasant things she was dealing with. She closed her eyes and sheltered herself somewhere in her mind. Somewhere entertaining enough to lose track of the time slowly passing by, but not enough to keep her from being alert and reactive. 

  
  



	3. Know Your Enemy

It's only hours later that Gavin's voice pierced through the silence of the night. Tennessee hadn't moved at all in these past few hours, making her look like a punk-styled porcelain doll. The man was bored. So bored he looked up to the ceiling, his head resting against the wall, observing the patterns in the webs dangling in the air. He started to, semi consciously, hum a song at some point, almost forgetting he wasn't alone that night. However, Tennessee slowly started to recognize the said song through the numbness of her mind. Despite the look of it, she wasn't sleeping. She couldn't even if she wanted to. She clearly heard the first few notes and followed the melody, but, as alert as she was, the absence of threat left her in the meditative state of mind she fell into earlier. She didn't react, the cogs in her brain slowly getting back to work, searching in her memories to find in what circumstances she heard that song before. And then, it clicked. She knew that song. 

Back when the world was a more inviting place, Tennessee lived for one thing and one thing only: Music. It entered her life when she was a child and never left... until humanity came to an end, at least. After the mutant's apparition, any noise could put her in danger. But back then... She was a singer. With her friends, they formed a band a little more than three weeks after the beginning of their first high school year. They bonded quickly over time and through countless melodies. Music was their shelter. The band became the family almost none of them had. Tennessee was the daughter of two junkies, way past any possible withdrawal or redemption. Her grandmother took care of her as long as she could, but she died and the little girl was left alone in the child welfare services maze. Only one of them had a loving family, a father, a mother, brothers and sisters. However, the lack of personal space created a need for them to let some steam out from time to time. 

However, when they were all together, none of them felt lonely, weak or invisible ever again... Until Tennessee had to bury them one after the other as the pandemic took them away. To protect itself from the pain these memories would bring with them, Tennessee's mind threw itself at the only thing it knew to be safe: Music. The doll-like raven haired girl gradually started to hum the song along with Gavin, faintly at first, but the words quickly came back to her. She started to sing softly, in a faint but delicate breathy voice, floating halfway between the real world and the nothingness she hid herself in. It soothed her mind and her heart. Once serene, her voice gradually turned into whispers as she was falling asleep. It had been so long since she last felt in peace with herself... The song came to an end and the girl was ready to fall into a deep slumber, despite her will to stay awake, when Gavin's voice reverberated in the small room once again. 

\- “So you liked the The Smiths?”

Tennessee jolted and sat up straight, completely awake now. Since she wasn't really gone the second before, she was able to answer his question as if she never got that close to falling asleep.

\- “Yeah... I listened to them a bit. Along with a thousand different artists.”

\- “Looks like you enjoyed music a lot”, he said with a gentle smile. 

\- “I did”, she answered, bitterly smiling back at him. “It was basically my whole life...”

She stopped talking for a moment, then looked at the man in front of her, sitting on the other side of the room. Gavin smiled at her again, a bit timidly, encouraging her to keep going. At first, the girl didn't want to say anything else and wished to end that conversation right here and now. But somehow, she also wanted to remember that part of her life, even for a short moment. She let a tired sigh out, then answered halfheartedly.

\- “I was a singer. In a band”, she said, stretching her legs in front of her and looking at her feet. “We were supposed to begin our first real tour as the first half of another artist a week after people started to drop like flies. Got canceled, of course.”

\- “Did you play any instruments?”

Tennessee raised a suspicious eyebrow as she scanned his face, searching for the slightest breach in his sudden interest. Did that man really wanted to know or was he just forcing them into some kind of mandatory conversation? Reticent, Gavin's relaxed attitude kept her going.

\- “Not in the band. But I had an acoustic guitar I would play any time I was alone, even if it was to last only a minute.”

After she answered that last question, Tennessee bit her lower lip. Gavin was really trying to be nice to her, even though she'd been quite unpleasant since they met. It wouldn't kill her to put a little more effort in the conversation. 

\- “What about you...?” she asked, the vivid sage green of her irises meeting the man's golden eyes.

\- “Me...?” he said, surprised. “I played bass a bit.”

Gavin's smile widened a little. He was obviously satisfied and relieved to see her participating in the conversation.

Gradually, it became more and more natural for them and over the next few hours, they covered the whole music subject and a few more. The night's sky was getting clearer when Tennessee lost her battle against her exhaustion, falling asleep in the same sitting position as before. It brought a new, but wary smile to Gavin's face before he turned his upper body to the side, resting his large shoulders then his head on the wall, closing his eyes to get some rest.

___ ___ ___

In the morning, Tennessee woke up to the discrete sound of footsteps in the room. She opened one eye and discovered that Gavin was tiptoeing his way around her, gathering some of the food she hadn't already picked up. His intentions were clear enough to her. He was quietly making some provisions before leaving, without telling her. The girl lifted her head up from the wall.

\- “I didn't think you were the kind of guy that would leave without a word in the morning”, she said nonchalantly as she stretched. 

Gavin froze instantly, showing his back to her. Even from where she was, Tennessee could see the bright red color appearing on his ears. This guy was so easy to read when he was blushing... However, a few seconds later, his shoulders relaxed and he turned around to face her.

\- “You didn't really look like you wanted to tag along”, he said, a bit of shyness remaining on his face.

\- “I didn't say I would, but I didn't say I wouldn't either”.

A mischievous and playful smile appeared on Tennessee's pulpy lips.

\- “Unless you're some kind of lonesome cowboy”, she added.

Gavin shrugged his shoulders and gathered a few more items. However, the girl couldn't see any kind of bag he could put them in. How was he planning to carry all the items he was holding right now? His pockets seemed to be loaded already and, with the holstered gun at his hip, what they contained was probably just as essential as food was. Tennessee stood up and stretched some more. Sleeping in a seated position, against a cold concrete wall in the cold weather of early fall wasn't exactly easy on one's body, no matter how young and feisty they were. The girl glanced at the backpack behind her. It was kinda full, but there was a little more room. If she was about to form a team, they would need more food and they could definitely fit a few more things in there, if not everything he picked up until now. Tennessee put her backpack on the ground in front of her. 

\- “Put as much as you can in there, and leave the rest”, she said with a cold voice and stern face.”I have enough for two, so I'll share. Well, at least until you find your own stuff... We'll need to find water though. We'll be out soon if we both rely on my supplies”.

She had no idea what had happened for the man to be out in the wild without anything besides what he was wearing and his gun but something happened for sure. No one would've survived this long in these circumstances. Sufficient survival equipment was mandatory at all time. However, Tennessee didn't care about the story so she wasn't going to ask. 

In front of her, Gavin seemed surprised. Really surprised. His bright amber eyes were opened wide. Sour and arrogant as she had been since they met, he wasn't expecting any friendly or helpful move from the raven haired girl, especially not a complete turn around. She was obviously kind of a tough cookie... With a thankful nod, Gavin kneeled next to the backpack and started to put away the supplies he already gathered, always packing the most important or best item first. It was one of the countless rules of survival that became as natural as breathing for survivors: Always set your priorities right. One mistake, one omission and you could be missing something important in a crucial moment.The whole thing packed and tightly closed, he handed back the backpack to its owner.

\- “It's heavy”, he said. “But I guess you won't let me carry it, right?”

\- “Right on, handsome”, she replied with a cheeky wink. “At least not until I deem you worthy of my trust. Guess I don't need to tell you it's not an easy fucking task.”

This time, maybe because of her wording choices, Tennessee obtained a complete blush reaction from the brown haired man. 

\- “So, you're ready?” she said.

\- “Yes.”

“Then lead the way, Ranger!” the girl answered playfully, adjusting her backpack on her shoulder.

___ ___ ___

They walked. All day long. The weird duo only took short breaks every few hours to eat some snacks and have a little water. Through the whole year and a half she had spent alone, Tennessee never covered that much distance in a single day. She had no trouble keeping up with Gavin's pace at first, but as the day went by, she progressively got tired and slowed down. However, the man walking in front of her didn't say a word and slowed down too, matching the girl's rhythm. Even though the weight of her backpack was starting to take its toll on her, the independent and proud young woman never complained. 

Gavin had been taking a few glances at her from time to time, knowing she was struggling despite her silence, but he never asked her if she wanted him to carry it. She would probably refuse to let him anywhere near the backpack anyway. She clearly stated she wasn't ready to trust him yet and handing her belongings to him was a risk she wasn't willing to take. The only thing he could do was to keep an eye on her and multiply the pauses. 

However, when the sun began its downward course, Tennessee quickly began to grumble, louder and louder, until she finally spoke up.

\- “Hey Captain, we should be looking for a place to stay the night before it gets too dark”, she said with a grouchy voice. “I don't want to end up as a mutant snack”.

Gavin suddenly seemed to be coming back from a far, far away place in his mind. The glimpse of surprise in his amber eyes had the girl frowning. 

\- “Oh, uh... Yeah, you're right”, he replied, quickly scanning the area.

Unfortunately, there wasn't any satisfying shelter around. They kept walking, a little faster, for another hour, where hiding for the night became urgent now that the sun was nothing more than a blurry orange ball in the distance. Tennessee was about to throw a tantrum and express her frustration when Gavin pointed at a building, about three hundred (300) meters away from where they were right now. 

\- “There, the gas station. It looks solid enough”, he said. “Even if the front windows are broken, the garage part should be safe”.

\- “Fucking finally!”

They both walked towards the small building, slowly. Tennessee did the same thing she did the day before, and every other day she approached a new potential shelter; she got close and mentally listed every potential way out. Surprisingly, she didn't even need to ask Gavin to complete her usual full circle inspection before entering the building since he did it by himself. That gave the girl a faint smile as she thought he was maybe worth the partnership more than she thought in the beginning.

The duo silently cleared the front store before they made it to the garage in the back. As Gavin said, even though the front was in pretty bad shape, the door between the two sections was quite sturdy and the lock on the garage door was simply impressive. It was enough to make Tennessee at ease despite the fact their shelter was a last minute pick. She put her backpack down and stretched with a smile of delectation. The weight was about to drive her crazy.

Gavin tightly locked both doors as she did so and detailed their surroundings a little more attentively afterwards, while his grumpy companion settled herself in a corner. 

There wasn't anything particularly surprising, Tools and car parts were scattered everywhere, or at least, what hadn't been looted yet. The place seemed like it had been searched thoroughly. The room was barely smelling like a repair shop anymore. Only a few hints of gasoline were still floating in the air. The ex-police officer slowly walked around the room until he passed by a tall tool-chest. There was a considerable space between the wall and the chest which was unusual for places like that, were they needed every inch available to work on cars. 

Gavin pushed the chest on the side a little to see if there was something behind, like he assumed. He found a large object, covered with a dusty tarp. The man already had quite a good idea about what was hidden under the thick and rough fabric of the tarp. It was a miracle it hadn't been found already. He pulled on the tarp slowly to avoid the dust from spreading in the air. A smile gradually lightened up his handsome features as he did. From where she was, Tennessee couldn't see his face but his body language was spilling the tea.

\- “What's up?" She said, arching a brow.

\- “I think I found something”, he said.

The tarp fell on the floor and Gavin's shoulder followed the move a minute later. Whatever had been hidden there was obviously disappointing. Tennessee stretched her neck, trying to see what the tool-chest was hiding, but it was impossible from her actual position. 

\- “So?” she asked impatiently

Gavin came back towards her and sat about half a meter away from her. His face wasn't showing any emotion, but the girl immediately saw the sorrowful glint in his golden.

\- “It's nothing”.

Gavin's voice suddenly felt jaded. Puzzled, the girl stood up, grunting as her sore muscles protested a little. She asked herself what the fuck she was actually doing and why, but she walked towards the tool-chest anyway. Once she got a little closer, Tennessee saw what disappointed the man that much. It was a sport bike, but it was in a pretty bad shape. Parts were missing and it was obviously beyond repair. However, that motorcycle didn't bring any answer to the girl. She turned around and locked her vibrant sage green eyes with the amber of Gavin's eyes. Her lips were tightly pressed against each other and she was frowning.

\- “Would you mind giving me a little explanation about that sudden sad puppy look on your face?” she snorted, massaging her shoulder.

Carrying her heavy backpack took a toll on her body, but she would never admit it. Tennessee was way too proud and stubborn to show any sign of weakness, even to the man she was supposed to team with. The discomfort was making her quite cranky at this moment.

Gavin looked away. He didn't feel like answering right now, and the raven haired girl's tone wasn't exactly encouraging. Tennessee sighed heavily and sat back next to her belongings. With sharp moves, she took out her water canteen and two cans, just like the one she gave him the day before. She took a sip of water, then offered the bottle to the man at her side. If she had been reluctant in the morning, handing the water canteen to him each time she was taking it out quickly became a habit. She placed one of the cans next to him and opened the other with the can opener she was keeping in the front pocket of her bag. It was easier to use than a knife. 

Gavin's eyes stayed a little dim as he looked at the can. When she saw that he wasn't even reaching for it after he gave her the water back, Tennessee put her own meal down and turned her upper body in his direction, bringing her knees up to her chest. She circled her legs with her arms and sighed quietly. When she looked at him, the vivid light into her Aventurine stone eyes was way friendlier than it had ever been.

\- “You have something for bikes?” she said in a surprisingly soft tone.

Gavin lifted his head and looked at her, at a loss. He wasn't expecting that the girl would show any signs of compassion or sympathy. She seemed to be that hard-shelled type of person that wouldn't be moved by others feelings at all. Her own emotions were already out of reach for mere mortals... 

The man straightened his back against the wall, resting the back of his head on the concrete as he looked in front of him with a distant gaze. He seemed to be somewhere else when he answered. His voice was a hoarse kind of whisper, as if he tried to keep the doors of his past closed, just like Tennessee did the day before when Gavin surprised her with that song.

\- “I had one”, he said. “A bit like that, a sport bike. I liked to ride”.

\- “I see... so that's why you were interested in that pile of scrap metal back there”, the girl said.

Her words were a bit rude, but her voice was gentle. Tennessee had quite a pretty voice when she wasn't hiding under her rude words and her insolent tone. It almost had Gavin smiling.

\- “I guess you liked that enough to hope this one would be roadworthy”, she said, taking the first bite of her canned meal with a thoughtful expression on her face.

\- “Yeah... I've been trying to find one since things completely went down. I looked at every bike I found on the way but I haven't been lucky yet”, replied the man. “Anyway... It's not like any of them could replace Sparky.”

\- “Sparky? You gave your bike a nickname? That's cute...”

Tennessee chuckled. She had that amused look when she looked at him. The man was in to be teased a little! But the girl didn't say anything else. She decided to give him a break for now, even if her puckish smile was still floating on her lips. On the other side, Gavin was looking away, a bright red coloring his ears. Repressing another laugh, Tennessee pushed the can she previously placed next to him with the side of her foot, but she didn't say anything. She would be damned if he was starting to think she cared. She finished her own meal without a word. However, half a smile raised a corner of her mouth when Gavin finally picked up the can.

Both of them were tired with the long day they spent walking and since they settled in for the night at the last minute, it was pretty late already. Gavin slowly finished his meal then put both cans a little further on the side. He stood up and stretched a little, then looked at the raven haired girl behind him.

\- “Get some sleep, I'll take the first watch”, he said in a firm but gentle tone not to trigger the hot-tempered into some feisty reaction. “There's no point in both of us staying up all night, so I'll wake you up in a few hours”.

\- “I'm agreeing to this only because I'm drained”, she said, pulling a woolen blanket out of her backpack.”And also because I'll be sleeping on that backpack, Darling”.

She smiled at him with an impish look on her face, then wrapped the blanket around herself. Just like the previous night and until she could trust the man, Tennessee would sleep in a seating position, her backpack between her and the wall. Gavin chuckled quietly and shook his head slowly. This girl was absolutely impossible to live with... but he was kind of enjoying her company anyway. 

\--- --- ---

Later that night, the raven haired girl woke up because of a hand on her shoulder.

\- “Hey, wake up!” said a voice close to her.

Tennessee gasped and her body reacted in a split second. Her eyes weren't even completely open when her hand reached forward and grasped the unidentified man's throat next to her. When society suddenly collapses into chaos like it did, morality tends to disappear quickly once no one is left to enforce the law. A man that would never do any harm to anyone in the previous world could turn into a cold-blooded murderer in the bat of an eye in this one. Tennessee saw so many horrible scenes and even had to fight for her life a few times, against people she would never have suspected.

Thankfully, her vision cleared before she could clench her fingers around the man's trachea. Gavin's face, obviously worried, appeared in front of her. Her heart was pounding in her chest from the fright he gave her. She wasn't able to make a single sound. The man seemed quite surprised too as he gently wrapped his fingers around her wrist to remove her hand from his throat, his amber eyes locked into hers the whole time.

\- “It's okay”, he whispered.”It's me. We have to go. Quick, pick your things up.”

Tennessee was at a loss and her sage green eyes must've exposed her incomprehension because Gavin took her hand and lifted her up. He promptly shoved the very few items that were still out into the girl's backpack. The man was about to throw it over his shoulder when Tennessee pulled on it with an unexpected strength, a furious look on her face. Gavin stood still for a second before it clicked. What a stubborn girl she was! He handed the bag over to her and grabbed her hand. The glow in the gold of his irises was determined, firm and relentless. 

\- “Don't slow us down”, he said with a quiet growl.

Gavin dragged the young woman behind him, going back to the front store as silently as possible. They kneeled down behind the counter and the man scanned their surroundings when Tennessee finally heard that distinct sound she knew too well. It was a strong and high-pitched wailing that sounded like it was coming straight from Hell itself. Every time she heard it, the raven haired girl could feel her heart shrinking and her lungs collapsing as if that nightmarish sound was sucking the life out of her. Her face immediately went pale.

\- “Shriekers...”, she said breathlessly.

\- “They're closing in”, Gavin replied.

A long, unpleasant shiver ran down the girl's spine. If Tankies had to be avoided, Shriekers had to be feared. Tankies were slow enough to fall behind, but Shriekers were faster. They weren't as strong as their bulky comrade but they were way more agile... and dangerously smarter. Shriekers were not only setting traps and ambushes, they were also travelling in groups with other Shriekers or with the few other kinds of mutants, giving them the opportunity to mount attacks on their targets. That's probably what they were doing right this moment. Circling the gas station, trapping them inside without any way to escape their sharp and poisonous spikes, claws and scales. If you were close enough to realize their bodies were exclusively females, as Tankies were exclusively males, if you were close enough to see the outline of the scales partially covering them, you were probably giving your last breath. 

Gavin cautiously raised his head above the countertop, giving their surroundings another attentive look then pulled on Tennessee's hand and kept a tight grip on it.

\- “Let's go!”

The raven haired girl wasn't doubting he had been a cop anymore, but she was a little surprised to hear it so clearly. It was the same voice, but the inflexions were so different it could belong to a different man. 

They ran through the side door, Shriekers coming from the front, and made their way to the nearby woods as fast and as quietly as possible. Their progression was slowed down by the uneven ground under their feet and the trees on their way, but they kept running. None of them took a single look back and they only slowed the rhythm once they couldn't hear the ghastly Shirker's lamentations anymore. Back to a steady walking pace, all they could hear was the sound of their frantic heartbeats and heavy breathing. They didn't want to stop walking even if everything was now peaceful and quiet. 

The dawn wouldn't be showing up before a few more hours, but both of them wanted to put as much distance as possible between them and the Shriekers. They had been walking for a few minutes now but Gavin was still holding the cat-like girl's hand. The adrenaline slowly going down, Tennessee came back to her senses. She was hearing the muffled sound of their footsteps on the crispy fallen leaves covering the humid and mushy ground at this time of the year again. She was smelling the forested scents of the pines and trees surrounding them again. She was feeling the heavy fog around them, lingering on her clothes... and then she started to feel the warmth of the man's hand around hers. She quickly pulled it away, with an annoyed click of her tongue. Gavin gave her a quick look from over his shoulder but he quickly brought his golden gaze on the forest in front of them, without further reactions. 

They kept walking and the sun was slowly rising up, granting them a little more light with every minute going by. They kept walking, but while Gavin remained silent, Tennessee let out a few heavy sighs, then groans and many other types of complaining sounds. She was starting to feel the repercussions of the two really short nights she had, back to back, since she met the ex-police officer. Even with the regular breaks and the snacks, her whole body felt numb, but she knew all her muscles were sore. Her exhaustion was blurring her perceptions and bringing her grumpiness up to the surface. Her footsteps, usually so light they were nearly inaudible, were now sounding like the heavy steps of a drunk elephant. 

However, Gavin didn't seem like he was intending to take any longer breaks even though their walk started way earlier than it should have. They were on one of those breaks, feeding and hydrating themselves when the proud raven haired girl started to feel dizzy. She tripped when she got up to close their backpack in order to resume their endless walk, but she quickly steadied herself. She lifted her hand and pinched the bridge of her nose with a grimace. Tennessee then closed her eyes for a moment. They were only in the middle of the day...She needed to be careful from now on or she wouldn't make it through the day.

Sitting on a squarish boulder, a few steps away from her, Gavin's amber eyes were locked on the girl, a worried shade darkening them. Of course he was aware she wasn't exactly at her best, he wasn't either, but there were only a very few options possible and none of them were really satisfying. There was barely anything for miles and miles in front of them since they were actually in a really rural and woody region. Fields and forests were covering most of the land. The woods they were in was one of them. If they kept walking just a little more, they could be out of it before the end of the next day.

However, he wasn't sure if his teammate would be able to cover more distance today. He knew she was strong, stronger than most of the girls he ever met; she showed it well enough and she wouldn't have made it through the last year and a half if she hadn't been fit or brave enough. But the pretty raven haired girl was so distrustful that Gavin actually feared she'd rather push too hard on herself than admit she needed to rest. Tennessee then opened her eyes and caught the amber gaze of the man lingering on her. Her expression immediately stiffened.

\- “What?” she snarled in an icy voice.

Gavin didn't answer. The girl was obviously cranky and anything he would say would only make it worse. He slowly stood up instead, just like if nothing happened, and walked up to her. Her sage green eyes were cold and her body language showed hints of hostility. The man just stopped next to her and picked up the backpack from the ground, without a single word. 

Tennessee's jaw dropped. Since when was he so bold? She opened her mouth to say something but nothing came out. She was way too tired to argue or carry that bag any longer. She crossed her arms in front of her, pursing her luscious lips together as the man steadied the backpack on his shoulders.

\- “We should go”, Gavin said, giving her a quick but self-assured look.

A big pout on her face, the girl followed the move and resumed walking. She would never admit it, but she was kinda glad the man decided to carry their supplies, even if she previously made a fuss about it.


	4. Stitches and New Ties

When daylight started to fade, they were still deep into the woods. Since traveling by night was impossible, they would need to set their camp in the forest that night. It wouldn't be as safe as the shelters they had in the previous nights, but it was still better than stumbling on a mutant at night. If they weren't moving, the risks to be found were already lower. The duo stopped by a tall boulder. Time and erosion had created a flat, but rough to the touch, vertical surface. Without a word to each other, both Gavin and Tennessee stopped by the natural rock wall. They had decided, at the same time, that this was the spot where they would be spending the night.

Gavin put the backpack down and the pretty raven haired girl behind him immediately reached for it. The sooner they'd set up their camp, the sooner she would be able to rest a little. At the bottom of her bag, there was a tightly folded waterproof tarp. It crackled and crunched as Tennessee climbed up on top of the boulder where she unfolded the tarp on its width along the edge. She placed a few heavy rocks on the corners, making sure it would hold the tarp in place, then threw a few more down the rock wall and finally climbed down her promontory. 

Gavin was setting the fire up while the girl folded the tarp where it reached the ground, the folded half creating a protection against the soil's humidity. She placed the rocks she previously brought down into the fold to maintain the right angle. The tarp wouldn't move under them or fall on their head during the night. Tennessee went back to her backpack and took the rolled sleeping bag tied to it. Unfortunately, she only had one. Why would she have two anyway? She had been alone since the mutants invaded the cities.

However, they would probably be taking turns on sleeping, since they didn't have walls to hide from their enemies. The sleeping bag unrolled, Tennessee crawled out of their makeshift tent.It was an ingenious set up, but they would need to find something better soon if they wanted to survive the winter. The trees were showing off their autumnal colors already and the cold would be biting their skin in less than a few weeks. 

The girl gave a quick look around but couldn't see her survival partner anywhere. She picked up the blanket she barely had the time to put back in the backpack that morning, but when she stood up, the same dizziness she experienced earlier caught her off guard. The world began to spin around her and she lost her balance. She couldn't steady herself that time and started to fall. Everything went dark and Tennessee waited for her limp body to hit the ground...But the shock never came. She felt two strong arms wrapping her in a tight embrace as she was brought back to her feet.

\- “Are you okay!?”, said a man's voice.

The said man sounded pretty worried, but the girl couldn't remember anyone that could've been caring for her right now. They were all gone... Her vision gradually cleared up and all she could see at that moment was two warm and bright golden eyes. They were so close she could see every shade of gold and every streak of amber in them. But why were they expressing that much anxiety? Was something wrong? The world finally stopped to reel around her and the young woman came back to her senses. Gavin's hands were firmly holding her against his broad and sturdy chest, keeping her on her feet. She felt so cold for a second that the warmth of his arms around her sent a long shiver down her spine. He was so close... Even closer than they had been under that shelving unit, hiding from a Tankie passing by them before they could introduce themselves to the other. 

He was so close that Tennessee could catch new hints of his scent. A masculine fragrance with a remnant aroma of the woods all around them and the dust they were covered with. However, the smell was actually fresher than what she would've expected. Showers were only a vague recollection of a life they had to leave behind after all... The pretty raven haired girl's lips slightly parted but no words came out. She was looking at Gavin with hazy eyes and her lack of response made him even more worried. 

\- “Tennessee, are you okay?”, he repeated with a concerned voice. “What's wrong? Answer me!”

The girl finally stood by herself, regaining control of her body. She slowly shook her head and averted her gaze. Even though she almost fainted, she would never admit it. She was strong, resilient and resourceful. She would be back on her feet soon enough. There was no need to tell him anything. 

\- “I'm fine”, she replied with an irritated sigh. “It's nothing. I just lost my focus and tripped on something.”

Tennessee quickly freed herself from the man's grip, just as if she never needed it. She picked up her blanket and walked back to the tent. She needed to rest and she intended to have some right here and now, regardless of what her new partner could say. 

Little did she know, Gavin was about to walk her back to their shelter and tell her to get some rest, but since she was basically clinging to her blanket and walked straight up to the tent, he knew there was no need to say anything. His amber gaze followed her progression until she disappeared under the tarp. When she was out of sight, he sat by the fire with a smile on his face. That girl was a whole phenomenon and she was getting even more captivating as days went by. There was so much she wouldn't say, yet it must be quite interesting. If he could get her to open up just a little... he was sure to hear a few surprising stories.

____ ____ ____ ____

A few hours later, Tennessee was woken up by the crackling sound of the tarp and a movement at her feet. Startled, she sat up straight and discovered Gavin, halfway into the tent, a hint of surprise in the gold of his irises. He didn't intend to wake her up with a start and he ended up jumping too when she suddenly got up. The girl was a light-sleeper. She had always been, but Gavin felt like the phenomenon was intensifying recently. They stayed like that for a moment, both of them not sure about what they should do. Unexpectedly, Gavin spoke first.

\- “You should come and eat something since you're awake,” he said.

The man didn't move out the tent right away though. He looked straight into her eyes, waiting for her to reply. He was about to make his way out, thinking he wouldn't get any answer when Tennessee nodded slowly. She was feeling a lot better after these few hours of sleep, and having a meal would only help her to regain her strength faster. Gavin's eyes seemed to smile, even though his face remained neutral. He cleared the way out of the tent and the pretty raven haired girl followed soon after.

A few steps away from their improvised shelter, Gavin circled the fire he previously lit with stones and cleared the area of any flammable material. He also pulled a tree trunk by the fire where they would both be able to sit. It was probably the most comfortable camp she'd seen since homes weren't an option anymore. A small grin appeared on her face as she sat on the log next to the man. Without a word, he handed her an Instant Noodles Cup. The girl was pleasantly surprised to feel the warmth through the material of the cup. She couldn't remember the last time she actually had a hot meal... or Instant Noodles. She brought the cup to her chin, enjoying the warm curls of steam on her skin for a while. She looked at Gavin and spoke in the softest tone she ever had since they met.

\- “Where did you get that?”

She had spoken quietly, her smoky voice pleasantly lingering in the air as the sage green eyes of her irises met the gold of the man's gaze. Her eyes seemed to shine smoothly. It was like the warmth of that cup in her hands was melting the iciness she was hiding behind. Half a smile, obviously satisfied, appeared on Gavin's lips but was quickly gone.

\- “I had a little time to search the gas station while you were sleeping last night,” he replied, a kind expression on his face.

Tennessee frowned. A detail was bothering her and she needed to know, or she would simply not get over it.

\- “When did you put that in my bag?” she asked in a suspicious tone.

Gavin's eyes opened wide, surprised by the question, but a calm and reassuring smile quickly erased it.

\- “You're a light sleeper, but you're no match for a cop.”

He was obviously amused, but thankfully the girl couldn't be mad at him right now. With the cup of instant noodles in her hands, she simply glared at him, silently threatening the man to take action against him if he ever tried to do this again, even though it was mostly to keep her “bad girl” facade. 

She placed her pulpy lips on the edge of the cup and took a sip. She let the broth run down her throat and closed her eyes, delighted. It was the best thing she had in ages. Most of the food available for the survivors to eat was meant to be heathen prior to consumption. The flavors of those meals were thought accordingly, so most of what she ate in the past year was tasting a little off. It often left a weird taste in her mouth, but the options were too limited to choose. That cup of instant noodles? It was tasting just right and the warmth spreading in her chest felt just as good. If she didn't grow to be a hardly approachable and rough mannered girl out of her cruel life, she would've thanked him wholeheartedly. She enjoyed every single bite and sip from her meal instead, a smile shyly floating on her lips.

However, it was enough for Gavin. Even though she was obviously not the most easy going person he traveled with, she was lifting the weight of loneliness off his chest in her own way. A hot meal was poetic justice in the end. Once she was done, Tennessee kept the cup in her hands for a while. Usually, she would place what was left of her meal next to her right foot. She had some of these really precise and inevitable habits... But tonight, she kept the cup in her hands, as if she wanted to keep the warmth with her a little longer, even though it was gone a long time ago. 

Everything was completely dark around them now. The two young adults got used to the absence of light in the buildings or on the streets. But here in the forest, they were in complete darkness. The treetops were so thick that it was impossible to see the smallest patch of sky. Neither the moon nor the stars were able to pierce the shrouds of leaves above their heads.

Both of them were blankly staring at the fire, lost in their thoughts. The silence around them was oppressive, but that's another thing they got used to over time. It was so easy to reach the deepest parts of their minds when there were barely any sounds to bring you back to reality from time to time... Even the wildlife had suffered from the apocalyptic events that accompanied humanity's demise. The birds were not singing in the morning anymore, or only in the shyest way. The grasshoppers weren't stridulating at night. In the first days of her new lifestyle, this overwhelming silence had been a great source of anxiety for the pretty raven haired girl. 

She was distractedly fiddling with the hem of her sock when one of her fingernails got stuck in a small hole along the seam. She clicked her tongue, visibly upset. 

\- “Fuck” she said.

Gavin slowly turned his head in the girl's direction, surprised by that spontaneous curse word, but was still half lost in his own mind. His uncommunicative friend got up and reached for her backpack. She quickly got a small plastic casing out of one of the countless pockets and sat it back on the log. She opened the casing and took a sewing needle, accompanied by a thread spool, out of it. Under Gavin's golden gaze, glowing with curiosity, she expertly passed the thread through the needle's eye and began to mend the hole in her thigh high sock.

Despite the darkness of the night, the girl was done with the stitching in no time. When The sewing tools were back in their casing, Tennessee looked up and met the amber eyes of the man. She easily read the admiration on his face and pursed her pretty raspberry red lips. 

\- “Oh, don't look at me like that!” she groaned.

\- “Well... you're quite good at it.”

She couldn't see it, but the raven haired girl could easily guess that Gavin's ears were bright red right now. She walked back to him after she put the casing back in her backpack and stood by his side, forcing the man to lift his head a little more to look at her.

\- “I wasn't just your regular punk-ass delinquent roaming the streets to wreak havoc, you know!” she pouted, crossing her arms in front of her. “It was more complicated than that.”

The red on Gavin's ear completely disappeared in a split second. The gold of his eyes froze, giving them a serious expression. The inflexion of his voice was more solemn than what she expected.

\- “I don't judge a book by its cover,” he said, looking straight into her eyes, “I know not everyone is what they seem to be.” 

When he was done speaking, Gavin didn't avert his gaze or lose the slightest bit of his confidence. It took the girl by surprise a little, but she didn't budge. She locked her sage green eyes, but it gave her goosebumps. Tennessee looked away with a disdainful flick of her head, swinging her tick ponytail behind her. 

\- “Pfffft! Whatever!” she said.

She dropped next to him on the tree trunk, without uncrossing her arms. She looked the other way for a moment, exaggeratedly irritated. However the reasons of her indignation being utterly absurd, her anger quickly faded away. She let out a long and heavy sigh then lowered her head, her arms still tightly locked around her. Noticing the breach in her defensiveness, Gavin finally spoke up.

\- “Where did you learn to do that?” he asked in a soft tone.

Tennessee looked at him from the corner of her eye, up and down, trying to find fault in his kindness. People were never that kind... she sighed. The muscles of her face slowly relaxed, going from that angry look to a painful expression. The memories that question brought back to her were quite bittersweet .

“My grandmother told me when I was a kid,” she said with a hint of melancholy, “After she passed, I rarely had any money for new clothes, So I kept repairing what I could. Things weren't really different when the world went down.”

The silence fell on them again. Gavin respectfully waited for the girl to make her way out of her memories. It was obvious, with the gloomy glimpse in her beautiful aventurine like eyes, that she wasn't exactly with him anymore. The raven haired girl slowly closed her eyes and took a deep breath. When she opened them again, the wall she had kept between her and the outside world was back, locking her feelings away from the man's eyes. Her face was not showing anything anymore beside her usual iciness and determination. Tennessee brought her gaze back to the crackling fire.

\- “If you want me to mend anything for you, just tell me,” she said in a cold, quiet voice.

Her voice was steady and calm, but Gavin could easily hear the hoarseness in it. He nodded, a gentle but crooked smile on his face. She wasn't completely insensitive after all.

\- “You didn't sleep at all last night,” the girl added, “You should get some sleep first. I'm okay for a few hours with that nap I had earlier.”

The man looked at her, hesitant. She wasn't really close to him, but she was his partner now and he had that strong instinct of protection . He wasn't really leaving someone else in charge usually. But he needed to sleep too, he was only human.

\- “You're sure?” Gavin asked, the gold of his irises searching for the slightest hint of hesitation in the pretty girl's eyes or voice.

\- “Yeah, just go... before I knock you out.”

A cocky , but surprisingly friendly smile lightened up Tennessee's gorgeous features, reassuring the man enough to get up and smile back at her.

\- “Thanks,” he said, “Wake me up in a few hours.”

The raven haired girl didn't answer, simply following his walk to the tent with her eyes. What a weird night. It had been so long since she last evocated her grandmother. Even though the nice and sweet lady that raised her like her own child passed years before the beginning of the outbreak, her memory was just as vivid and painful than the day Tennessee had to say goodbye. With her long white hair she kept in a perfect BeeHive hairdo and her deep green eyes, the old lady was the closest thing to a family the girl ever had. She would've needed her so much more than the dozen years she was granted. A pearl of water suddenly appeared at the corner of her eyes, clinging to her thick eyelashes. Tennessee wiped it away and let her mind wander to the crackling sound of the fire and the pitch-black night around her. 

____ ____ ____ ____

With the very first light of the dawn, Tennessee stood up. The fire was slowly dying, but it kept her warm through the night. However, her face was pale and the dark circles under her eyes were an obvious sign of her exhaustion. She stretched very slowly and let out a quiet complaint of weariness. With the same slow pace, the raven haired girl walked up to their makeshift tent. She kneeled at the entrance and glanced inside. 

Gavin was still sleeping, laying on his side on top of her sleeping bag, as if he had been too embarrassed to get in. The small blanket was covering his upper body, protecting the bare skin of his arms from the cold. Tennessee sat on one hip, looking at the man by her side. His tall and athletic frame, all dressed in black, was standing out on the pale green fabric of the sleeping bag.

Gavin moved a little, sticking an arm out of the blanket and startling the girl. Taming the momentarily frantic beat of her heart, her eyes skidded down to the arm he just moved. The ex-officer had those large and manly shoulders she would've been dying to dig her nail into back then. His arms were just as appealing as the rest. Strong, well-defined muscles under a tight skin... and his hands! Back when humanity was still a thing, she would've been imagining them running on her body right now.

But those days were gone, and the only thought the girl's brain allowed her was a simple “nice enough”. Moving carefully, Tennessee placed her hand on the man's calf and gently shook it from side to side.

\- “Hey, Sleeping Beauty,” she said with a quiet voice, “Time to get up. It's morning already.”

Reacting calmly at first, Gavin almost jumped up a few seconds after the girl mentioned the morning. He immediately lifted his upper body, leaning on his elbow, and gave a quick look around. The dim light around them confirmed what the girl just said. It was the morning and he slept through the whole night. 

\- “Morning?” he asked in a hoarse morning voice,”Why didn't you wake me up?”

\- “Because you slept just as much as me the first night and not at all yesterday when I had half a night,” Tennessee replied, ”Plus, I was fine with the few hours I got in the evening.”

\- “And how will you survive another full day walking?”

Gavin was visibly doubting she could get through this last day they needed to spend walking to reach their destination. Or maybe he was worried about her. Yes, he was indeed looking a little concerned. A cocky grin appeared on her lips and she scooted over, getting a little closer. 

\- “Well give me an hour or two and it will do,” she replied, closing in again.

She was now sitting right next to him, her knees up against his thigh in the very little space available under the tarp. A little more and she would've needed to pass her legs over his. Gavin's ears turned red and he quickly crawled out of the tent.

\- “Alright,” he said in a hurry, without looking back at her.

Tennessee watched the man leave their shelter like he had the devil on his tail,with a small smile upon her face. She repressed a chuckle. The more she was seeing the blush on his pretty face the more she wanted to see it again. apparently, the proximity was inevitably causing the desired response. Thinking about how she could tease the poor Gavin a little more, the raven haired girl laid on the sleeping bag. She closed her eyes and soon fell asleep, a mischievous smile giving her gorgeous lips a cheeky curve. Playing like that with her travel partner was a fairly stupid idea, but if she couldn't have some fun from time to time, what was the purpose of being alive and constantly fighting for their survival? 


	5. "And When It Rains..."

Hours later, their stuff packed and their breakfast quickly eaten, the duo was walking again. Gavin had picked up the backpack first, without giving the raven haired girl a chance to reach for it or even argue about it. They were following the same routine again; walking, quick breaks, water and snacks then walking again. However, despite their plans, they wouldn’t be able to reach the CDC that day.

Around the end of the afternoon, the two young people were still in the woods when it suddenly started to rain. It was A cold and heavy rain that froze them to the bones. As soon as it started pouring, Gavin grabbed the girl by the arm and started running.

-”Let’s go!” he exclaimed. 

In an instant, their clothes were completely soaked, but there was nowhere to hide. The tarp wouldn’t grant them the shelter they needed with a rain like that. They ran approximately fifteen (15) minutes when the woods finally thinned out. Only a few trees, scattered here and there, were remaining from the dense forest they had traveled into for the past couple days. They finally exited the woods and broke into a small and empty plot of land beside a newly built suburban neighborhood. Well, new almost two years ago, before the human race faltered. In the distance, they could see the unfinished wood frame that would’ve been a house by now if the outbreak didn’t occur. 

Gavin dragged the girl behind him as they ran towards one of the houses aligned by the road they stepped onto. They must’ve been the first buildings in the neighborhood since their construction seemed to be completely achieved. A few of them even had cars parked in the driveways, but they should skip these. Cars meant potential inhabitants and potential inhabitants meant either danger or corpses. None of these options were quite pleasant and these houses wouldn’t be considered unless they were the only shelters around. Which they were not.

Skipping the few first houses, the man tried the front doors and windows of the next ones. There should be at least one of them left with an unlocked way to get in. After the third tightly locked house, the ex-police officer was getting impatient. Drenched by the rain, Tennessee was shaking behind him, her arms wrapped around herself and her knees together in a vain attempt to keep herself warm. She was obviously freezing. The duo wasn’t exactly dressed for the cold weather coming their way and, once wet like drowned rats, it was only worse. The girl’s trembling lips were turning blue and her teeth tightly clenched together as she tried to keep them from chattering. She was so cold she couldn’t even think of something smart to say that would show her actual discomfort. Gavin gave her a look over his shoulder and decided he was done with the nice way.

-”Enough,” he said between his teeth. 

Taking a step back, he drew his gun out and the raven haired girl behind him frowned. What was he intending to do with that? Before Tennessee could say anything, the man used the pistol grip to break the bottom window panel, right in the corner, and stuck his arm through it. Blindly searching for the latch on the other side, Gavin finally found it and unlocked it with a sigh of relief. The door opened and they both ran inside the house.

As the girl vigorously rubbed her arms a few steps further, locks of her drenched raven hair sticking to her skin, her partner placed a wood panel, unexpectedly left by the door, over the broken window. The window sill was large enough to keep the panel in place for now. He’d come back to fix it later. They needed to dry and warm themselves up first. 

Gavin quickly walked off to the other rooms, completing his inspection in the living room. The whole house was empty.No furniture or domestic appliances filled any space in the uninhabited residence. Manifestly, no one ever lived here. 

However, there was a large fireplace in front of him with a significant pile of wood next to it, as if it was some kind of “welcome gift” from the realtor. Whatever it was, it would probably save the day. Shivering, the man put their bag down in the middle of the empty room and quickly stocked the fireplace. Soon enough, the crackling sound of the fire filled their ears.

Tennessee was standing close behind him with a glassy gaze, showing signs of light hypothermia. She didn’t move when he stood up and it immediately raised a flag into his mind. Gavin hastily walked to the backpack behind them and took the girl’s blanket. He draped it over her shoulders and cautiously got her to sit by the fire. Kneeling behind her, the man rubbed her arms through the thick fabric of the blanket. The girl’s lips progressively went back to their natural color, that soft raspberry red he didn’t think he would miss and her pale skin turned pink again. Gavin kept rubbing his hands over her arms until she spoke in a faint, but always so friendly and pleasant voice. 

-”Get your fucking hands off of me...”

He immediately obeyed, but Tennessee didn’t look at him. Her sage green eyes remained obstinately focused on the fire. The man slowly scooted over to sit next to her and finally warm himself up too.

Their clothes were still dripping and, even though the wind wasn’t freezing them right away since they entered the house, they were still unpleasantly cold against their skins now that the duo was immobile. They would need to think of something since the fire might not be sufficient to keep them warm through the whole night. The temperature was dropping fast at this time of the year. Any survival guide would be clear about these situations.

-”We should take these clothes off,” he said distractedly, his mind scattered over a thousand other things at the same time. 

No answer came from the girl sitting right next to him besides the rustle of the blanket. Suspicious, Gavin looked at her and discovered two bright, green eyes lingering on him. With a spark in her irises and a mocking smile on her lips, Tennessee kept looking at him, right into the gold of his eyes, without a single word. He was clueless at first, but the answer slowly appeared into his mind. He quickly turned his face away from the pretty raven haired girl and cleared his throat. His ears grew redder than they ever did. They were so red in fact, that Tennessee could swear she saw some steam rising up from them.

The situation was hilarious for her, but she refrained from laughing and waited to see how he’d manage his way out of this.

-”I mean, uh... It wouldn’t be good for either of us to get sick from staying into soaked clothes,” the man stammered, embarrassed that his previous wording got a lewd meaning into her mind.

He wasn’t even done speaking that Tennessee had already taken her vest and coat off in a single move, dropping the blanket with them.

-”Yeah, you should probably get out of yours too,” she replied.

Tennessee took her shirt off as she spoke, revealing the tight tank top she was wearing underneath. When the ex-police officer glanced back at her, he did not expect to see her removing her clothes just like that. He immediately turned his back to her, as the bright burning red on his ears came back. The pretty raven haired girl didn’t miss any of it. She chuckled quietly and wrung out her shirt, placing it at a safe distance from the fireplace so it could dry through the night. Behind her, the red slowly wearing off his face, Gavin took his bulletproof vest off, almost like he was unsure or ashamed about this whole situation now.

Tennessee’s amused smile wouldn’t leave her face as she unzipped and removed her boots. She tossed them to the side and wriggled her way out of her skirt, leggings, and socks all at once.It was only then that she separated and placed the clothes, one piece at the time, next to her shirt. Tennessee was now down to her underwear; a tight black cotton tank top, barely hiding the shape of her breast, and the assorted pair of panties. Nothing impressive. Just a plain, black bikini cut bottom made of cotton like her top.

Without her soaked clothes on, the girl was already feeling better. She looked back at Gavin, curious to see how far he was in the process of removing his own clothes. He had only taken his shirt off so far and it wasn’t placed by the fire yet. 

However, Tennessee immediately noticed the few scars on the man’s back. Most of them were so small she had to squint to see them, but a few others were large enough to actually get a silent gasp out of her. She knew he was a cop before the outbreak and that it was quite a dangerous lifestyle, but she never thought his sculptural body would be covered in scars either. Some were visibly anterior to the mutant’s apparitions, but some others weren’t older than a year. If most of them happened in the last year and a half, it was a miracle the guy wasn’t dead yet.

The pretty girl silently crawled to him as he was unbuckling his belt. She stood up and aimed at the largest scar, running from his shoulder blade to the opposite side, unbothered by the fact that Gavin was about to take his pants off a few inches away from her. Tennessee ran her index finger on the scar.

-”Damn, how did you get all these scars?”

Gavin’s back stiffened up as her finger reached his side and he suddenly jolted a little further, out of her reach. The girl cocked an eyebrow, wondering what was wrong with him and the answer came in a split second later. Gavin was ticklish! A wide, mischievous smile appeared on Tennessee’s luscious lips, but she held herself back a little longer to listen to the man’s answer.

-”They’re old,” he said in a neutral voice, looking at her over his shoulder. “It doesn’t really matter.”

The young woman squinted, not convinced by his overly serious and barely informative answer. It was only a thought until then, but now she was sure to do it. Tennessee reached for his side again, her fingers brushing another scar as her other hand copied the first one. Gavin immediately giggled and twisted, but he would need a little more to escape the bratty girl behind him.

-”Why so serious, Officer Gavin?” she asked in a funny voice. “Aren’t you able to have fun sometimes?”

She only wanted to tease the man a little in the beginning, but Tennessee was having fun in the end. She laughed wholeheartedly as she mercilessly tickled Gavin. He wriggled and twisted, but a chuckle soon slipped through his lips and he ended up laughing his heart out too. The pretty raven haired girl tickled him until he rolled on the ground with her, trying to get a hold of her hands.

Tennessee fell on top of him and Gavin wrapped his large hands around her wrists, finally escaping the girl’s tickles. Their laughs slowly died in their throats. The sage green of her irises met the gold of her partner’s gaze and they stood still for a while, looking at each other until Gavin realized she was barely wearing anything. That tank top left nothing to imagination. The light fabric was still soaking wet and adhering to her body like a second skin. Her generous, round breast was hanging right before his amber eyes, placing her nipples, hardened by the cold, in plain sight. 

Gavin’s face turned bright red in a split second before he pushed the girl away and turned his back to her once again. Tennessee fell down on all fours. Since her “prey” escaped so suddenly, she couldn’t steady herself in time. Thankfully, she was only standing on her knees... The pretty raven haired girl puffed her cheeks and sat on her heels. Her expression was halfway between irritation and amusement. 

-”What’s got you all hot and bothered?” she said in a falsely displeased tone.

The irritation on Tennessee’s face quickly disappeared as she became aware of the man’s embarrassment.

-”It’s... It’s nothing.”

Gavin’s ears grew redder as he stuttered his answer. He would obviously not tell that demon-like young woman he caught a glimpse of her breast when it was right under his nose. But she was clever, and she already knew. 

-”Were you checking me out!?” she asked, faking to be offended as a smug smirk curved her pretty mouth up.

-”I wasn’t trying to...”

Tennessee refrained her laughter. His back still facing her, the man couldn’t tell she was only teasing him some more. The red on his ears was so bright they looked like they could catch on fire anytime now. Shaking her head softly, the girl turned her back to him and started to peel the wet cotton off her skin.

-”No peeking or you won’t be looking at anything anymore,” she said, even though she was perfectly aware that the poor Gavin wouldn’t dare to look at her for a few more minutes at the very least. 

With her top off, she wrung out that last piece of cloth. The warm light of the fire shone softly on her skin, enhancing the delightful curves of her upper body. Still facing the other way, Gavin wouldn’t catch a glimpse of the exquisite view behind him. He was too busy trying to ignore the burning sensation on his cheeks as he was taking his heavy military boots.

When Tennessee put her tank top back on, it was still cold and humid, but the warmth provided by the fire would quickly make it more comfortable. The fabric was still tightly adhering to her skin, but it was way easier to ignore the two little nubs of her nipples hidden under it. She slowly shifted her weight from her heels to her thigh, sitting on her side as she faced the crackling fire.

Gavin finally slipped out of his tactical pants and laid them flat near the fireplace with the rest of their clothes. The pair of pants would probably be dry in a minute or two, since they were made of that amphibious-like cloth fabric mostly used for law enforcement and military uniforms. It made them durable, light weighted, and quick to dry. However, the man was only wearing a red pair of boxer briefs with a black waistband.

While Gavin was avoiding to look her way at all cost, Tennessee wasn’t refraining herself at all. He sage green eyes, lasciviously glowing in the darkness of the storm, lingered on every line of the man’s body. In other circumstances, she probably would’ve turned him into a snack. No, she definitely would’ve made a snack out of him. 

Tennessee had a low emotional attachment capacity. A really low emotional attachment capacity. It was mostly due to the loveless life she had. However, when it came to purely physical relationships, it was completely different. Before the apocalypse fell upon the world, the pretty raven haired girl was quite demanding and rarely satisfied, especially if she had to content herself with a single partner. She never deprived herself of an attractive man’s company when she was encountering one. And that man sitting by her side? Gavin? She wouldn’t say no, but that was before this mess even started. These kind of guilty little pleasures weren’t allowed anymore if she intended to survive even though the ex-police officer gave her the feeling that he couldn’t harm her in any way.

With a lewd smile on her pulpy, raspberry red lips, Tennessee took another can of food out of her backpack and rolled it in his direction. Gavin had continued to avoid looking at her. She had intended to throw the can at him at first, but she probably would have hit him in the face. However, Gavin couldn’t help but look her way when the tin can stopped its course against his thigh. His ears reddened a little, but he didn’t look as embarrassed as he was earlier. She still had more fabric on her than she would if she was wearing a bathing suit after all. Gavin nodded to thank his new survival partner, the amber of his irises warming up a little.

They both started to eat their meal, each on their sides, in complete silence. These lunch breaks were the only moments where the duo would chat a little, but at the moment, the sudden “disappearance” of their clothes wasn’t fully integrated. Gavin was still feeling a bit uneasy, but it was mostly about the respect he had for women, and her inclusion of course, than about timidity or shyness. 

Halfway through her meal, Tennessee lifted her head up, looking straight at her companion.

-”So... we should get to the CDC tomorrow in the afternoon, right?”

Gavin finally looked at her. The casual tone the girl used washed away the uneasiness out of his eye-catching golden gaze, lifting up the remaining awkwardness around them. 

-”If we can leave in the morning, yes. We should be there a little after noon,” he said.

The mention of a precise time didn’t surprise the young woman. Gavin was still wearing a watch. It was a small digital watch with a solid but light leather bracelet. When she first saw it, Tennessee was sure it wasn’t working anymore and that the man kept it out of habit, since a nonfunctional digital watch was completely useless. Her own watch, a small analog dial with a worn out leather bracelet, didn’t survive its first encounter with a mutant. However, it turned out Gavin's watch was not only a hybrid of the two types of display, but it was also perfectly working. “Solar Powered” was his answer when she asked him how it was possible. Briefly, when Gavin said they should reach their destination around noon, it really meant they would be there by noon. But it wasn’t what the girl was concerned about. 

-”What do you think we’ll find there?” she asked, putting her empty can down.

Tennessee had been sitting cross-legged as she was eating her meal, but when she started to speak, she brought her legs back together and rolled on her hip as she rolled on her side to face the man. Gavin looked into her eyes, trying to determine if she was afraid or if she was simply curious. However, the bright sage green of her irises showed no sign of fear or curiosity, but it wasn’t tinted with her usual anger either. It was calm and quiet, almost friendly. A shade of green the man never saw in her eyes before.

-”The vaccine I hope,” he sighed, deeper than Tennessee would’ve expected. “Maybe the serum to get rid of the mutants, if we’re lucky. To be honest, I have no idea about what we’ll find there in the end. It could be an empty room, some kind of laboratory or a whole stock of vaccines. The clues I found in the past year lead there, so..."

-”I see...”

The raven haired girl’s voice sounded thoughtful and her gaze drifted toward the fire. Gavin saw the long shiver that ran down her spine. At the same time, Tennessee wrapped one of her arms around herself. The very little light coming through the clouds was quickly disappearing in the darkness of the evening, but the man noticed the goosebumps covering her arms and thighs. She was obviously cold, and as the air grew even colder, the fire wasn’t enough to keep her warm anymore, nor was the blanket on her shoulders.

Little by little, the cheerfulness the girl previously showed faded away. The green of her eyes darkened as she was trying to keep them on the crackling flames of the fire. Her hands slowly slid down her arm and she wrapped her delicate and slender fingers around her wrist. A strong feeling of uneasiness grasped on her heart, but the girl couldn’t resist the morbid curiosity she had for their actual environment.

Throughout her whole life, Tennessee never lived in a house and the nights she spent in one could be counted on her fingers. After the outbreak, she still avoided them like a pest, daring to enter one only if there were no other options. Unfortunately, she would need to spend the night here, into one of these houses that only reminded her how miserable her life had always been. 

The grip around her heart tightened and it slowly turned into a sharp pain. She suddenly felt like she had been running away from it all her life. How she always felt out of place, how she never felt like she belonged anywhere.The girl always thought she wasn’t worth the slightest smile and that she deserved every disdainful look and snide remark. Back then, she was already convinced no one would notice if she suddenly disappeared. Until that day. A thousand memories were now flashing before her eyes, dragging hundreds of mixed feelings behind them.

Tennessee was now distractedly rubbing her thumb on her inner wrist, going over the black shapes inked on her pale skin over and over again. Gavin noticed it and immediately identified the gesture as a coping method. As her skin got red from the constant friction, the man realized how uncomfortable the girl must be at that moment. His golden gaze lingered on her for a while, wondering what triggered her sudden discomfort and if he should inquire about it or not. Tennessee was rarely revealing anything about herself and Gavin learned in the past few days how fierce she was when she needed to protect her secrets. It might be better to give her some space.

However, Gavin kept an eye on her while she was lost in her thoughts. He ended up noticing the tattoo on her inner wrist and couldn’t identify the design under the girl’s fingers. As he tried to count the shapes on her skin, Tennessee was already lost into their meanings. Even though no tears streamed down her face, her eyes were filled with water.

She didn’t think of them in so long. A vicious feeling of guilt added its weight on her heavy heart. Their souvenirs were so painful however, that she would already be gasping for air if she had been alone. The raven haired girl was barely conscious of Gavin’s presence anymore, but that’s mostly what kept her from breaking down. Her mind was miles away from that house where no one ever lived. She was in another place and time, where an apocalyptic outbreak was only an overused movie scenario.

Tennessee was looking at a younger version of herself, hiding into one of the music rooms of her school at lunchtime to avoid interacting with the others. It was a few weeks after the beginning of her first high school year. She looked at her younger self stumbling upon that tall, skinny boy, with hair as dark as hers was and his beanie, nonchalantly playing guitar in the room she used to hide alone. She recalled the gentle but timid smile he gave her when she sat next to him and the friendly tone of his voice when he asked her if she played an instrument. She remembered how embarrassed she was when she told him she wasn’t, that she couldn’t afford classes outside the school program. The boy immediately offered to teach her, like if they were childhood friends, and she accepted, a bit awkwardly. Little did she know this would be the best decision of her life. Both of them were lonely in their own world, but they finally found someone to rely on.

A few months went by before the next bird joined the flock. The two teenagers entered the music room, that was unofficially their hanging spot, and were greeted by an aggressive rhythm. It was catchy even though it lacked a melody. That’s how the duo met the girl behind the drum and the boy sitting by her side, a bass in his hands. The two groups only shared the space at first, but one day, it clicked. They should form a band. They had all the instruments they needed. But who would be singing? The boy with the beanie answered immediately: Tennessee would. Yes, she was already using her alias at that time... She first refused to sing, but the boy convinced her to give it a try. The very first second they all mixed their voices together, instrumental or vocal, they knew that band was meant to be. A strong bond would tie them all together from now on.

It’s only years later, when the band was on a roll, that they came up with the tattoo idea. Strangely enough, three of them came from dysfunctional families. Beanie Boy’s father was violent. His mother would rarely leave their apartment and he would come to school with bruises and scratches from time to time. The girl with the drum was rarely seeing her parents and they didn’t seem to be concerned about being there for her. Both of them were accumulating jobs just to make it through another week, just like Tennessee. What about her parents? Well, she never really knew them. They were junkies long before she came into this world and the baby girl was handed over to her grandmother right away. She had a sweet childhood, but the old lady wasn’t meant to last and the child was brought back to the dirty apartment her parents were miraculously still living in. 

However, it didn’t take much time before she was taken away and thrown from a foster family to another. Her bandmates were the first meaningful bonds she ever tied since her grandmother’s death. Even with the last one, the bassist. None of them knew about the other’s backgrounds, but as they gradually opened up to each other, they learned that he was the eldest of five kids. His parents owned a clock store a few blocks away from the house he lived in. They weren’t rich, but they weren’t poor either. He had the typical lower middle class family. The boy shared his bedroom with his two little brothers, the other bedrooms of the house being occupied by his two sisters and his parents. In the end, they had very little space for a whole lot of people.

However, the bassist’s parents were really nice people. Tennessee even felt some affection for them until the outbreak took them away. They always allowed their son to have the rest of the band hanging out at their place, as long as everyone was going back home for the night. Despite the lack of space, the couple turned their garage into a practice room for their son and his friends. Through their whole high school years, it had been their safe place. It was the place where Beanie Boy was sure to find some peace, where the Girl with the Drum knew someone was waiting for her, and where Tennessee knew she would always be warmly welcomed. 

The band soon became a new family for them, even for the Bassist. In this family, he didn’t have to endure the youngsters harassing him to “get their turn”. He didn’t have to share absolutely everything he had. This band belonged to him and not to the rest of his family. Instead of material possessions, he got to share dreams, rhythms and beats, rhymes and lyrics. That’s probably why his parents were happy to support their son and the rest of the band as they tried to make something out of it. 

Tennessee couldn’t remember who exactly came up with the assorted tattoos idea at that moment, but they were still a bit too young to get them. They ended up getting an apartment together. Beanie Boy left his violent house, even though he was going back there regularly to check on his mother. Drummer Girl left the apartment where she was always alone and learned to live with at least one person around at all times. Tennessee settled down and wouldn’t be thrown from a foster home to another. And the bassist? He got space. The space he needed to exist. It’s a year, maybe two, after they moved in that they finally decided to get their tattoos. That day, Beanie Boy came back with bruised knuckles and a bleeding lip. He threw his abusive father out in the morning and scared him enough to make sure the man wouldn’t be coming back. He never came back. He wouldn’t get much time to try anyway. The world was a little more than a year away from meeting its demise. 

However, something clicked that day. They had always been there for each other and Beanie Boy got strong enough to face his terrible situation after growing up in the supportive environment they created together. To the four of them, it was worth celebrating. 

They rushed to that tattoo shop, an establishment with some of the greatest reviews they spotted years ago. They were like a bunch of kids in a candy shop. They kinda hit a wall though when they were asked the big question: “What do you want?” They had no real idea about the design they wanted beside the fact that they all wanted the same. In the end, Tennessee got them to shut up long enough to expose her idea. There were some advantages being the leader of a group. She said one word. Birds. Four birds for the four of them. Four birds with their wings wide open, in full flight, representing what they found with each other. Freedom. The band freed them from the weight they all had on their shoulders. 

The raven haired girl remembered the smile they all had on their faces and how they suddenly wanted to go first. A sharp pain tore her heart and she dug her thumb’s nail into her skin, clenching her teeth as she waited for it to go away. Noticing the change into the girl’s motions, Gavin decided he gave her enough space. He had to say something. Anything.

-”Do you like birds?”

Tennessee quickly turned her face to him, startled as she was abruptly brought back to the present. She gazed at him with a frown, looking for a hint about his intentions in the gold of his irises. However, she was still lost in between past and present and she wasn’t sure to understand what he meant.

\- “What?” she said, leaving the few curse words she would have added in other circumstances.

\- “Your tattoo,” he replied with a quick move of his head, pointing his chin at it.

-”Oh...”

The raven haired girl hesitated for a moment, searching for words that wouldn’t hurt her more than she was already. She wouldn’t be able to tell him the story behind the ink on her skin. Not now. But she could at least say something, since the gentle look on the man’s face convinced her to take a step forward.

-”It...It has a special meaning to me,” she said with a trembling voice she tried to keep as steady as possible,”It was a representation of the bond between us. Sometimes, it helps me to feel better.”

Tennessee didn’t realize the word “us” slipped through her lips. She avoided any references to them since the last of her bandmates passed away from the terrible flu that started the whole ordeal. Seems like none of them were Evolvers. How ironic. Tennessee was an Evolver, but her evol felt so ridiculous she never thought it was that special and she doubted she was one of them when the media mentioned it in the news. She only felt at ease with her three friends and no one else. They were all gone now... and the slightest remembrance would hurt badly. The girl would terribly regret that single accidental word if she was aware of it, but if she didn’t, Gavin heard it perfectly. The gold of his irises was warmer when he replied.

-”If you wanna talk about them, I’m listening,” he said softly, an imperceptible hint of sadness in his voice.

Sure enough, as much as the man was willing to be an ear to her, he wouldn’t force it either. He knew well enough by now that the pretty raven haired girl he was travelling with wouldn’t say anything if she didn’t want to, and he wasn’t the kind of man to be offended by someone’s silence. 

Gavin looked at her as she pulled into herself, bringing her knees under her chin and wrapping her arms around her bare legs. With her punk clothes on, she didn’t seem like much, but Tennessee had those long and slender legs mannequin would be jealous of. Her fight for survival was probably the main reason behind it, but her body was a masterpiece of finesse and agility. It gave her that wild predatory energy even when she was at her lowest, just like she was now.

-”I’d rather not,” she said as she averted her gaze “Not right now...”

Even though he had his share of painful losses through the last years, even before the first Non-Evolvers got infected by the virus, Gavin felt sorry for her. He didn’t know anything about her, but something made him feel like the girl’s life hadn’t been easy. Was it her provocative attitude, her rough manners, or how she refused to trust him? He couldn’t tell. But somehow he knew.

-”If you change your mind, the offer still stands.”

A few awkward minutes later, Gavin put his empty can down. He reached for his pants, which were completely dry, unlike the rest of their clothes, and put them on before he spoke to the girl again.

-”Maybe we should get settled for the night,” he said, hoping she would hop in the sleeping bag and get a good night of sleep.

Tennessee nodded, but didn’t move. She suddenly seemed drained from all her strengths. Without any further answer from the girl, Gavin picked up the light green sleeping bag from the backpack and placed it by the fire, behind their drying clothes. Once done, he sat back exactly where he was before, but Tennessee would still not move.

-”Hey, you should get in the sleeping bag,” he said in a gentle tone, “You’re obviously freezing.”

The raven haired girl turned her head his way, a hint of surprise on her face.

-”What about you? Aren’t you going to be cold? Your clothes are still wet.”

-”I’ll be fine.”

Gavin answered without hesitation, a faint smile on his lips. Another shudder ran over the girl’s skin. She hesitated for a moment but she finally agreed and slipped her long, perfectly shaped legs in the light sleeping bag. She immediately curled up, disappearing into it from her chin to her toes. 

Tennessee closed her eyes, assuming Gavin would take the first watch. However, despite the sleeping bag and the blanket the man placed over her, she was still feeling a little cold. The rain chilled her to the bones. Also, she couldn’t stop thinking about how her partner would be cold too if he wasn’t freezing already. She turned around and looked at him, a resolute expression on her face. 

-”Hey, Champion.”

-”Hm?”

The man’s golden eyes settled on her, the flickering light of the fire giving them a breathtaking supernatural look. Tennessee’s determination wavered a little when she met the warmth of his gaze, but she gulped down her indecision and dashed straight forward, as she always did.

-”I’m still cold,” she said, staring right back into his eyes. 

She thought he would immediately get the hint, but Gavin stood up and added wood to the fire. Internally, Tennessee was listing the worst words she knew that would be a synonym to “idiot”. Gavin was way too much of a gentleman, and she couldn’t believe it. Where were men like that before the outbreak wiped them all? The girl could’ve ditched all her short-lived relationship for a man like that... or almost. 

She wasn’t ready to give up yet. She unzipped the sleeping bag down to her waist and made enough room for him as she locked her sage green eyes with his again. 

\- “I’m still cold,” she said with a firmer voice, ”Would... Would you mind?”

And bam. His ears were bright red again. Tennessee could tell he understood that time, but no matter how fun it was to see him struggle with the slightest mention of physical proximity, she didn’t want him to get any misconceptions about what she was asking for. 

-”It’s for warmth, don’t get any funny ideas,” she added.

Gavin was nervously rubbing his neck, undecided for a few seconds, then looked at her as he answered:

\- “Y-You too. It’s just for warmth.”

However, as he said that and took a step towards her, the pretty raven haired girl could see the red on his ears spreading to his cheeks. The man still slipped into the sleeping bag and laid on his side, turning his back to her. A crooked, smug smile drew Tennessee’s lips upward and she shook her head with a faked despair. This boy was unbelievable. But the girl knew she’d get what she wanted, one way or another. She would keep pushing until she does and she felt like Gavin only needed to be pushed only a little further. Of course, she’d do it progressively, not to scare the poor man away. Tennessee rolled on the side, facing his strong and muscular back.

-”You know... It would be more comfortable if you weren’t so afraid of an inoffensive girl you can’t even face her,” she said softly, with a playful but slightly mocking voice.

Gavin’s body stiffened and she didn’t miss any of it. After a moment though, the man slowly rolled onto his back, as if he was laying next to a bomb or anything that dangerous, and laced his hands under his head. He was looking straight at the ceiling, obviously avoiding her sight again. Tennessee immediately scooted over and pressed her whole body against his. She innocently rested her head on his arm and a pout quickly replaced her cocky grin. 

\- “Could you move your arm down a bit? I’m uncomfortable like this,” she said with sad puppy eyes.

Needless to say she was a master in her own art. The pretty raven haired girl heard Gavin’s difficult deglutition and saw his Adam’s apple bobbing up and down. She waited patiently and after a few seconds, the man moved his arm down, slowly, as if he was approaching a wild animal... or a makeshift bomb: Dangerous, potentially deadly, and highly unpredictable. Gavin tentatively wrapped his arm around the girl’s delicate shoulders, his face burning from the embarrassment he felt. Tennessee ruffled his hair with a quiet chuckle before she settled in, snuggling against him a little more and pining one of his legs down with hers. She immediately felt the warmth of his bare chest on her skin and a satisfied smile appeared on her face as she closed her eyes.

-”Much better,” she said, “Look at you being a good boy!”

Tennessee said that last sentence in a childish voice, like the one she would use when addressing a dog or a baby. However, minutes passed in complete silence beside the crackling sound of the fire and Gavin started to feel relaxed. Unfortunately, it wouldn’t last long. Tennessee’s voice rose from his side again. 

-”But keep your hands where I can see them. If they wander for even a minute, they’ll be gone before you know it.”

Suddenly, the poor man was all aware of himself again. He made sure everything was at an appropriate place then looked at the ceiling again. The burning sensation on his cheeks was back. He listened to the girl’s breath as it gradually slowed down and became deeper. It took a moment but she was obviously sound asleep now, more than she ever was since they met. 

On the other hand, Gavin couldn’t sleep. He was wide awake while Tennessee kept cuddling some more, pressing herself against him. He was all too aware of her generous breast pressed on his ribs, the bare skin of her arm over his chest and her leg wrapped around his. The girl by herself was already pretty arousing, but added to over a year and a half on his own, it was harder to ignore. Speaking of harder things... The man’s body was reacting to her proximity, her touch, and her scent. Even though they lived in a post-apocalyptic world where houses, running water and showers were only vague memories, her scent was surprisingly pleasant. A well-balanced mix of an earthy perfume, fresh leaves, and the natural fragrance of her skin that smelled like wild flowers. It reminded him of a verdant willow grove on a sunny day, a gentle stream of crystal clear water flowing nearby.

The discrete peace of mind it brought to him was the last nail to his coffin. His embarrassing erection, confined to his pants, became uncomfortable. Unfortunately, every time he tried to put a single inch between them, the raven haired girl would wiggle in her sleep until the distance between them disappeared again. The only thing he could think of at this time was running in circles in his mind. “Please don’t throw that leg further over me...” He mentally repeated that sentence, like a prayer, until he got used enough to Tennessee’s body being pressed against him. Gavin would still need most of the night to fall asleep, bothered by that strange and uncontrollable lust he felt deep inside himself, even though he would never admit it. Even to himself.


	6. Illusions

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You'll notice I added KirstyOpal as a co-creator. She's doing an amazing job as my current beta-reader and I wanted her name to be on this work. As a Non-Native English Speaker/Writer, beta reading is an important step for me and Kirsty always find some time to do it despite being quite busy at times. 
> 
> I want to thank her and every other people that are lending me a hand when I need it, like my dear Kiddun <3 Even though you needed to take a break, without you, this fic wouldn't be half as good as it is.
> 
> Thank you so mucn!  
> Jiang

They took off with the first lights of the day. The thought of finally reaching their destination that day had them packing and progressing with renewed energy. The fact that they both enjoyed a good night of sleep probably helped too. They kept a satisfying pace all along the way and, a little before noon, they reached the outskirts of a fairly large town. Not the kind of town where they’d have main Headquarters, but important enough to have a Center for Disease Control unit seating downtown.

However, they tried to avoid spending time in cities unless it was absolutely necessary, and there was a pretty good reason. Mutants, no matter the type or size, were mostly hanging around urban areas, as if some part of them remained attached to the environment they were familiar with. Even though cities were strategic places to search for food, they were often not worth the risk. It was better to stick to suburban areas or smaller towns.

When they got within sight of the first buildings, both Tennessee’s and Gavin’s attitudes changed without a single word. They knew too well what kind of surprises urban areas had for them.

They carefully progressed toward the CDC building, street by street. The man kept a hand over the holster of his gun the whole time, ready to draw the weapon out if needed.

Surprisingly, the duo managed to make it to the fences around the large piece of land without any incidents. The building was standing in the middle, white, sizable and quite modern. In opposition to everything else around them, the lawn behind the fences was free from any garbage or piece of paper the outbreak spread everywhere. It was almost as if nothing ever happened there.

Focused and as silent as possible, the two young adults walked past the open gate and jogged straight to the building. None of them felt really at ease out in the open and exposed like that. They knew well enough that the best way to fight a mutant was to avoid the fight.

Gavin tried the main doors one after the other, without much enthusiasm, but everything seemed to be pretty well locked up. Nothing could go in or out by these doors. They followed the pale brick wall and proceeded to the back of the building. They found a service door but, just as Gavin thought, it was locked tight like the others. He took a long and deep breath. The girl by his side could feel his irritation, the air between them suddenly feeling heavy and charged with electricity. He was about to look for another way to get in when Tennessee wrapped her fingers around his wrist.

\- “Wait!” she whispered, “Give me the backpack.”

The man’s brows furrowed in a quizzical wince, but Gavin handed her the backpack. Since he got a hold of it the night they were unexpectedly chased out of the gas station they had to shelter in, he never gave the girl a chance to carry it again.

Opening one of the many front pockets, she took out two thin pieces of metal. Tennessee skillfully inserted the small tools in the keyhole and methodically proceeded to find the right position for the pins in the lock cylinder. With a serious look on her face, she bit her lower lip, focused on her task. It took a minute, maybe two, but a cocky grin finally appeared on her face.

\- “Gotcha!” She whispered cheerfully.

The keyhole turned on itself and they heard the “click” the lock cylinder made when it reached the right position. She removed the tools from the keyhole and reached for the door’s handle. The door opened easily, as if it had never been locked. The pretty raven haired girl glanced back at companion her smile suddenly halfway between pride and shame.

\- “Told ya, complicated,” she simply said.

Gavin’s brow raised above his amber gaze, a thousand questions glistening in the gold of his irises, but he didn’t say anything. He went in first as Tennessee held the door open. Obviously, everything was dark inside the building. Electricity went out quite fast once there was no one left to run the power stations. The man picked up the flashlight hanging to his uniform belt and lit the darkness in front of them. The door they opened led to a large but empty stairwell. Apparently, besides the ground floor they were on, there was another floor and a basement. It was obviously not the biggest CDC around but Gavin wouldn’t leave before he searched it thoroughly.

\- “Let’s start upstairs,” he said as the door was closing behind them. “We’ll make it down from there.”

The cop was back. Tennessee could hear it clearly. She nodded and followed the man as he carefully made it to the first flight of stairs, always keeping his back to the wall. They were about to climb up the last few steps and reach the metal doors leading to the rest of the floor when he turned around and locked eyes with the young woman.

\- “Whatever happens up there,” he said firmly, a severe look on his face and an unidentifiable glint in the gold of his irises, “you stay behind me. If anything comes up, anything, you don’t wait for me and you run. Understood?”

Tennessee winced. She didn’t like how he was telling her what to do, how he seemed to think she needed to be protected. She didn’t survive all alone through the horrors of the past year because she needed “protection.” She didn’t need anyone.

However, she put a twisted smile on her face and nodded, scared about what she would say if she opened her mouth. It wasn’t the place to argue about his overprotective – maybe a little macho in her opinion – behavior. The pretty girl followed him like a shadow, moving along the walls. The first trickles of adrenaline were rushing through her veins, but she wasn’t scared or anxious. Tennessee was used to silently making her way through buildings where mutants could be hanging, waiting for their next victim. Her heart was beating faster and her hands started to tingle, but her mind was as clear as rock. She was feeling like all her senses were suddenly overloaded and that time slowed down. Her body was simply getting ready to face the possible dangers on the other side of that door. 

Gavin gave a quick glance at the room through the tiny wired window of the door and signified the girl, with swift head movement, to open it. He stood right next to the door frame while Tennessee grabbed the handle, ready to hide behind the metal panel. She locked her eyes into Gavin’s, deeply focused, and could almost feel a connection between them. It was like she could read his mental countdown in the gold of his irises.

On his sign, they moved like one. The raven haired girl opened the door as fast as she could and Gavin drew his gun out, taking a step in. He checked both sides of the room behind the door and holstered the weapon. This floor was mostly an open space with a few rooms in the back. A great number of desks were aligned in perfect rows in the vast office area. Everything was sparkling clean besides the dust that now evenly covered the entire place. There were no signs of disturbance here at all.

His hand back over his holstered gun, Gavin quickly reached the other end of the room without a single look to the girl behind him. She slowly walked around the first few desks as her companion checked the other rooms, one by one, for any threat. All of them were just as empty as the space Tennessee stood in at the moment, staying close to the exit door in case something would rush out the rooms the man needed to check. These rooms were mostly archives and managers offices. Now that he made sure the floor was clear, he turned to the pretty raven haired girl, signifying her she could get further into the open space now. She closed the exit door before walking up to him, making sure that, if someone, or something, was roaming around on the other floors, they wouldn’t be caught by surprise right away if it was coming up their way.

\- “Search for anything referring to a vaccine or a serum,” he told her, “I’ll take the rooms here in the back.”

Tennessee sighed heavily and crossed her arms on her chest, a sharp glint of annoyance in her bright sage green eyes. If he kept commanding her around like that, it wouldn’t take long for her to lose it, And punch him in the face. Probably. The girl never listened or obeyed anyone in her life and she had no intention to start now. She was stubborn and bad at communicating.

Gavin disappeared in one of the rooms he previously looked at and another sigh slipped through Tennessee’s pulpy lips. Since she was there, she might as well look through those desks. One after the other, the pretty raven haired girl searched the desks, one drawer at the time. Besides pens, clips, blank pieces of paper or any other items any offices would have, there was nothing interesting there.

A grunt of frustration rolled into her throat when she closed another drawer, down to the last few desks. She was leaning on another desk, opening an umpteenth drawer when she heard footsteps behind her. She turned around and met Gavin’s gaze. The amber of his eyes still had that hint of seriousness, giving them a darker shade of gold. Tennessee felt like she was in for another ride under Gavin The Cop’s orders. She was already getting pissed at him and he hadn’t said a single word yet.

\- “Found anything?” he asked.

\- “Well, I’m down to these last two perfectly identical desks and there’s not even a fucking post-it about the whole virus thing,” she answered, sitting on the desk with her feet dangling above the ground, “It feels like this was only some paperwork division, something they probably closed early enough when the infection got out of control.

Gavin nodded, distractedly looking in front of him and a thoughtful expression on his handsome face. A few long seconds went by before he looked at her again.

\- “Let’s try the next floor.”

\---- ---- ---- ----

The ground floor was as uninteresting and fruitless as the floor they just left. It was a hall with a front desk and wide hallways on each side. Each hallway ended up with a staircase similar to the one they used. What was left of the large space behind the front desk was mostly living quarters for the researchers. Without a doubt, they had been used, if not overused. This floor was way dirtier than it was upstairs. Pieces of paper of all colors and shapes were scattered everywhere on the ground. Tennessee even noticed what she was convinced to be garbage and other kinds of trash. 

She was walking around with an obvious disdain for their surroundings when Gavin’s voice called her out. 

\- “There’s nothing here either,” he said with a hint of disappointment, “Let’s check the basement.”

The pretty raven haired girl shrugged her shoulders and followed him as he went downstairs, using one of the new staircases on the sides of the building. The light provided by the tall windows in the Main Hall was quickly swallowed by the depths of the basement darkness. Gavin’s flashlight lit up the way but the atmosphere was a lot more oppressive than it had been until now. 

At the bottom of the stairs, they found another door, just like the ones they met at every floor. That door led them to a room halfway between a lab-station and scientist office. Immediately at their right, there was a desk, identical to the ones Tennessee searched earlier, covered with paper. Documents, files, and notes were spread from one end of the surface to the other. The girl didn’t wait and started to look through them as soon as she entered the room behind Gavin. It was the most interesting thing she had to look at since they entered the building. 

The man kept walking around, detailing the room. On the opposite wall, two other tables held a complete lab material set. The man slowly passed by it, looking for anything that could give him a single hint about the vaccine’s location. The more he searched for it, the more he was feeling like this vaccine never existed. It wasn’t good. Not good at all. It would mean... all these people would be locked up in their bunkers forever. Or as long as their supplies would last. 

Thankfully, Gavin had learned to shield himself from such sinister thoughts long ago, way before the outbreak and Even before he became an adult. He was focused on their surroundings, but couldn’t find anything either. The laboratory tables didn’t provide anything interesting and the wall on their right had nothing to show him beside a whiteboard. A big, but unfortunately blank whiteboard. Not a single word had been left for potential survivors. Gavin frowned with a quiet growl, expressing his irritation and turned around to the left wall. 

This wall had nothing more to tell him. It was holding two large metal doors in its center, leading to the next section of the basement. As he walked toward them, Tennessee let out a heavy and tired sigh. All the desk contained was the usual office kit and reports on different substances none of them could pronounce. Besides, most of the actual report’s content was incomprehensible for them. 

The pretty girl rested her lower back against the desk, her hands gripping the edge. She followed Gavin’s progression towards the doors with her vibrant sage green eyes until he leaned on one of them, his ear against the cold surface since there were no windows to get an idea of what was waiting for them. She stood up and quietly made her way behind one of them, just like they did earlier. The procedure was automatic for them. Was it survival knowledge, instincts or some special connection between them? They couldn’t tell. In fact, none of the two young adults ever thought about it since it felt so natural from the beginning.

Once again, Tennessee opened the door and hid behind it while Gavin made sure it was safe for her to join him on the other side. When the doors closed behind them, everything got even darker. There was only a long hallway before them, without any doors or windows, and unlike the lab behind them, there wasn’t even a single emergency exit sign to light things up even just a little. 

The more they walked into the complete darkness of the hallway, the more the pretty raven haired girl felt oppressed and uneasy. She was keeping an eye on the man in front of her. His calm behavior and the confidence of his gait reassured her a little, but goosebumps quickly covered her skin. 

They probably crossed the entire length of the building before another set of metal doors, identical to the ones that led them in this pitch-black corridor, appeared before them. Because of the absence of the slightest opening on them, Gavin repeated the same procedure he followed for the previous set of doors. While he attentively listened to the noises around them, especially those that might or might not be coming from the other sides of the doors, Tennessee noticed a pad hung on the wall. The man must’ve heard something, because he quickly turned around to face the girl behind him. He brought his index finger to his lips, silently ordering her to remain as silent as possible. She took down the document pinned to the pad, folded it in two and stuck it in her back, between the band of her skirt and her skin, then replaced her shirt over it. Tennessee wasn’t sure about it since everything was so dark around them, but she thought she briefly saw something that could be interesting. 

By the time she did that, Gavin was ready to open the door and pressed her to take her place next to it with one severe glance of his breathtaking golden gaze. The raven haired girl returned his unfriendly look and grabbed the handle. The same silent countdown appeared in Gavin’s eyes and they opened the door. Nothing seemed out of place at first and the man wondered if the noise he heard was only a figment of his imagination. It was such a faint sound.it could’ve been anything in fact. 

However, the uneasiness Tennessee felt since they stepped in the hallway suddenly resurfaced, stronger than it previously was. She kept her usual ice-cold attitude but a vicious feeling of fear crept under her skin and twisted her guts. What on earth could make her feel that way? She wasn’t the type of girl to fall into such an unreasonable moment of panic. She couldn’t tell exactly why, but she was convinced something wasn’t right here. 

Gavin’s flashlight beam scanned the room they just entered, but instead of letting the door close behind them as she previously did, Tennessee held it open with her foot. She was instinctively unable to walk any further into this room. 

Before them was a fully functional laboratory. They were probably analyzing the virus right here before humanity was slowly reduced to a few individuals. Thankfully, since they were still alive and didn’t turn into mutants, Gavin and Tennessee had a natural immunity to it. That’s the conclusion both of them came to, despite not being officially aware of their status. Walking into this lab wasn’t dangerous for them. Well, not on the biological level at least. 

As Gavin pointed the flashlight at a tall metal locker on the other end of the room, something moved just at the edge of the lighted area and drew a gasp of surprise and fear out of the pretty girl by the door. None of them was able to tell what that shadow was, but Gavin darted the light in the direction of the movement. Unfortunately, there was nothing. Everything was still and silent. 

The man kept scanning the room, even more attentively. Tennessee, completely immobile behind him, suddenly had a weird taste into her mouth. It was somewhere between dirt and metal. It’s only when a crimson pearl rolled down her chin that she realized she bit her lower lip so hard she got it to bleed. She lifted her arms to wipe the blood off her face, but froze midway. 

A large blueish tentacle was wiggling a few meters away from them, attached to something they couldn’t see yet, hidden behind a closet door it probably opened after they came in. A few more tentacles appeared through the door then crept over the workstation in the middle of the room. 

Gavin took a few steps back and stretched his arm in front of the raven haired girl, as to shield her from the danger the tentacles represented. Unfortunately, the thing to which the appendages belonged wasn’t the only thing threatening them. A crackling sound further on their left drew the light beam in its direction. 

A crooked, outstretched silhouette, covered by a light grey paper-like skin, appeared before them. Its skin adhered to every bones and its gaunt, distorted face looked like it had been mummified while its arms, legs, and rib cage were unevenly too long to be human, giving the thing its disarticulated appearance. 

A series of clicks suddenly drew their gaze on the left some more. Again and again. Each time Gavin moved the light further on the left, a new, nightmarish creature appeared. However, these things, despite the fact they all had something giving them a slight resemblance with a human being, had nothing to do with the mutants they had spent the last year with. What were they? Why were they here? Why were they different?

Time slowed down for the two young adults standing by the door. The girl’s, usually so valiant, sage green eyes were filled with terror as she discovered every new monster and a fierce look appeared on Gavin’s face. Suddenly, the closet door from where all these creatures seemed to come opened wide and a torso, somewhat androgynous but most likely female, mounted on a gigantic spider body joined the atrocious crowd slowly closing in, as if they were trying to decide if the duo represented a satisfying target or not. But it wasn’t over. More monsters were emerging from the darkness of the closet. A humanoid frame, covered with what looked fluorescent yellow fish, sharp teeth visible under its thin lips; A shapeless purple mass, mostly translucent beside the two dark eyes hovering in the middle of it.. Even though it seemed like an eternity, it only took a split second for the hoard of abomination to jump at them, in a single move as if they were one. The relative silence the creatures remained in at first was suddenly filled with loud hissing, wheezing and clicking sounds. Gavin’s reaction was immediate.

\- “Run!” he shouted. 

Tennessee turned tail and ran into the endless corridor behind her. However, despite her flight for survival, she couldn’t resist the urge to give a quick look over her shoulder and make sure Gavin was following her. He was a few steps back, his gun aimed at one of the mutants chasing them. Suddenly, a loud noise echoed on the concrete walls all around her, bursting the girl’s eardrums. Gritting her teeth with a displeased grunt, she pressed her hand on her ear, doing her best to ignore the pain as she kept running. 

A spurt of dust came out the mummy’s chest and its face, already horrifying, twisted in an atrocious grimace. Tennessee needed a few seconds to realize what happened. Did Gavin shoot that thing? She couldn’t hear anything anymore beside a persistent buzzing noise and the pounding of her heart. A new splash came from one of the tentacles squirming near the mummy, ripping the end of the appendage off. It twisted and wriggled in pain while a dark liquid oozed from the wound. Another shot hit the fish-like creature right between the eyes and it fell to the ground. Yup, Gavin was definitely shooting at the monsters. 

Unfortunately, the mutants were getting closer despite Tennessee’s efforts. She turned her head in its initial position and dashed forward, sprinting through the last segment of the hallway. She knew the man by her side was adjusting his rhythm to hers and she had no intention to get him killed. She wasn’t exactly fond of him, but she couldn’t sacrifice an ally like the ex-police officer. 

They were almost at the end of the hallway, the light bouncing frantically on the two large metal doors in front of them, when the formless mass of purple jelly suddenly shifted form. It jumped forward and something that looked slightly like a translucent tentacle stretched from its core, aiming at Tennessee. That weird blob would get a hold of her in a second now. Without a second thought, Gavin stepped to the side, pushing the girl away from the appendages trajectory. 

\- “Watch out!”

Unfortunately, the man’s heroic move placed him right in front of the jelly whip and it landed on his thigh with a sizzling sound. Gavin did his best to suppress a loud cry of pain when he felt the burn on his skin. It was like this thing was made of acid. Clenching his teeth, he shot one of the last bullets remaining in his weapon’s magazine into the purplish mixture. It cut the string of jam straight, halfway between him and the blob, hissing at him.

The jelly wrapped around his thigh melted away as soon as it wasn’t linked to the rest of the corrosive mass. Despite the awful pain in his entire leg, Gavin dashed forward in a last attempt to escape the abominations on his tail. Tennessee had reached the doors, holding one of them open for her partner. For one rare moment, her anxiety showed on her face, twisting her delightful features. Gavin was still a few meters away. 

\- “Close the door!” he shouted.

\- “No way!” she shouted back at him, her voice failing her on the last syllable.

\- “Argh!”

Gavin’s displeased utterance reverberated on the walls as he jumped forward one last time, giving all he had left into that final sprint. A few more meters and he’d be on the other side of the door. He rushed through the opening, just like a bullet leaves a gun. 

The pretty raven haired girl pushed on the door as hard as she could, hoping to close it fast enough to save them from the monster coming their way. Gavin fell against the door leading to the stairwell, slightly tripping on the last meter or so. He only had the time to raise his head up and look at the young woman before they heard the click of the latch as it locked the mutants on the other side of the door. 

A split second later, a loud thud echoed in the room, quickly followed by continuous pounding against the doors. The metal panels were dangerously shaking as Tennessee took a step back. She quickly reached for a lamp a few steps away and turned it upside down to break the head off. She passed the pole through the handles, adding some strength to the door’s lock, but it wouldn’t be enough to keep the hoard on the other side forever.

\- “It won’t last!” She yelped as she backed off to Gavin.

A quick look at his thigh was enough to know he was in pain. The fabric of the man’s pants completely melted away where the shapeless mass wrapped itself around his thigh. The skin under it was slightly burnt but it didn’t seem too bad. Just annoying enough to slow Gavin down to the girl’s exact rhythm. 

However, the ex-police officer had always been a fighter and wouldn’t let such a small injury take him down. He stood up and grabbed the arm Tennessee held out to him. They ran up the stairs without catching their breaths and, instead of the back doors they used to get in, they ran straight to the doors on the other side of the Main Hall since they were the closest exit point. 

Gavin silently prayed for them to be locked on the outside, but with the possibility to open them from the inside. If not, it would be the end for the two young adults. His free hand, the other still firmly holding Tennessee’s hand, reached for the door’s bar and they leapt outside. Without a single look behind them, they dashed through the green lawn in front of the building. 

The duo didn’t slow down until they reached the gate, but they wouldn’t stop there either. The sound of broken glass coming from the building’s shattering windows had them jolting into another sprint. 

This situation wasn’t good at all. With these new monsters behind them, they had no other choice but to run through the streets around the CDC’s block, and running could lead them directly into the kind of mutants they were used to. Gavin never let go of the girl’s hand, dragging her in different streets at unexpected times. They couldn’t shake the mutants off their tails, but they managed to put some distance between them and the hoard. 

Once again, the man dragged Tennessee in a new direction. This time, however, it wasn’t another street like the previous ones. It was a small dark, and dirty back alley. It was so narrow that two men walking side by side would be enough to block the entire space between the two brick walls. Gavin pulled the girl far enough into the alley to hide in the shadows and pinned her against the wall. 

His body was entirely covering her, keeping the bright colors of the girl’s clothes hidden behind the black of his uniform. Tennessee could feel the man’s racing pulse through his jugular, less than a inch away from her raspberry lips. Gavin was staring at the alley’s entrance but the pretty raven haired girl had her vibrant sage green eyes locked on his jawline, right in front of her. Their breaths were short and a thin layer of sweat was covering their skin. Tennessee was wrapped into the man’s scent. Masculine, earthy, but not as unpleasant as she thought it would be. 

The hissing, wheezing and screeching sound reappeared and progressively became louder. The girl unconsciously stopped to breathe as she kept her eyes on the man pressed against her. He gritted his teeth and Tennessee felt the muscles of his forearms tightening on both sides of her head. In a few seconds, they would know if their lives were coming to an end or not. 

The inhuman noises grew even louder until the duo felt the pounding of their footsteps on the asphalt of the street. The girl tugged at the side of Gavin’s bulletproof vest without realizing it. Her possible imminent death instinctively triggered her need for a solid and steady presence by her side, no matter how strong she was. 

The first mutant suddenly appeared in the gap between the buildings and passed by it in a split second. All the other nightmarish creatures followed almost immediately, none of them taking a single look into the alley the two young adults were hiding in. For a few more seconds, they could still hear the stomping of their feet on the ground as it slowly disappeared in the distance. Soon enough, the dead silence that reigned on the world for in the past year came back. 

Gavin sighed in relief while the pretty raven haired girl noticed she stopped to breathe at some point. She gasped for air and her lungs felt like they were burning as they filled with oxygen. The man against her suddenly moved away, as if he just realized how close they were. He turned around, his hands placed on his hips as he took a long breath in. 

\- “That was close,” he said calmly.

\- “Close? Close?!” Tennessee whispered with a hint of anger. “Look at your leg and tell me how “close” that was! And what the actual fuck were these things?!” she added, still catching her breath.

\- “I don't know,” he answered honestly, “But they were a tad more dangerous than the mutants we’re used to.”

\- “No shit, Sherlock!” the girl scoffed.

\- “Whatever they are, they had been locked up in there and now they’re in the wild, Gavin said with a concerned voice, a hand distractedly rubbing the back of his neck.

Suddenly, a terrifying thought appeared into Tennessee’s mind. Her big bright eyes opened wide and her face became livid in a split second. She looked at the man, shivering. 

\- “Do... Do you think these things could mingle with the others!?”

Gavin remained silent for a moment, thinking about what she just said. The absence of immediate answer sent the girl’s anxiety through the roof but the man locked the gold of his irises to the green of her horrified gaze. 

\- “I can’t tell, but it seems highly improbable,” he replied as calmly as ever, “The ones we’ve been fighting along the past year never showed signs of reproduction, and if these would’ve been able to breed somehow, there probably would’ve been a few more of them in that room.”

Tennessee nodded silently, repeating Gavin’s words in her head. It made sense. She felt a little better, even though she wasn’t completely reassured either, and was soon steady enough on her feet to leave the wall she had been leaning on. The girl took a few steps in the alley and took a deep breath, putting that fright behind her once for all. 

\- “Well, that was fun...”

\- “We didn’t even find a single clue about the vaccine,” Gavin said between his clenched teeth, kicking an empty cardboard box by his side.

A spark of anger seemed to set the gold of the man’s irises on fire, despite the fact he kept a straight face. He was obviously disappointed by their dangerous yet fruitless expedition in the CDC’s building. However, a smug smile appeared on Tennessee’s beautiful face.

\- “Not exactly!”

Looking at Gavin, locking her eyes to his golden gaze, she picked up the file she hid in her back earlier. The man’s jaw dropped as she handed him the thin pile of paper. 

\- “It’s not much,” she said with a falsely sorry face, “but I think that’s what you were looking for.”

Gavin took the file from the pretty raven haired girl’s hands, baffled from the unexpected apparition of that clue he needed so much to find the precious vaccine he was looking for. Almost in awe, he opened the file and went through the few documents it contained. After a minute or two, Tennessee’s patience was already wearing thin.

\- “So, what does it say?”

\- “Apparently, this building wasn’t sufficiently equipped for the vaccine’s conception. They transferred everything to their main installations a few states away, but kept studying the mutations here,” Gavin said.

\- “Why do I feel like they tweaked the mutation phenomenon way more than they should have?” the girl sighed, looking at the ground with a bitter glint in her eyes and crossing her arms in front of her stomach as her smile faded away.

\- “Because they probably did.”

Gavin closed the file and put it away in the backpack. Speaking of which, they should really look for another one before Tennessee decides she had enough with sharing.

\- “Well, at least we know where to go.”

\- “We?” she said, a cocky grin appearing on her face.

\- “Oh, uh... Only if you want to, of course,” Gavin replied, a discrete shade of pink coloring the tip of his ears as he realized what he just said.

Tennessee uncrossed her arms, placing her hand on the appealing curve of her hip and negligently looking at her other hand’s nails with a faked high-handed attitude. 

\- “Well, my agenda is pretty loaded these days, but I guess I can make some room for you...”

She lifted her head up , looking at Gavin with a cheeky grin. The pretty girl saw right away that he was pleased with her answer somehow, but she decided not to make fun of him this time. They had enough emotions for the day and she would have many other occasions to tease him if she was sticking with him. A new wave of pink crossed the man’s face for a few seconds before he finally put on a straight face. 

\- “We should leave the downtown area and find a safe place to stay the night and maybe a few more days,” he said. “We’ll need to prepare correctly since the next CDC Center is a few months away if we stay on foot.”

\- “A few months!?” Tennessee cried out, “Couldn’t say it sooner?”

\- “W-Well, you’re free to go anytime...”

Gavin averted his gaze. Tennessee felt that the idea of them parting wasn’t what he was hoping for. The girl took a step back, crossing her arms in front of her again, and seriously thought about it. She never planned to stick with anyone. surviving by herself being what she knew best. However, now that she kinda got used to having Gavin around, she felt lonelier than she thought she would as she remembered all these months she spent on her own. 

\- “Never mind,” she sighed, “I’d rather die as I try to save the world, even if it means spending the next year with you, than die while I’m just aimlessly roaming around to survive one more day. At least it would have a purpose,” she added as she shrugged her shoulders.

\- “Who said you would die?” Gavin asked, frowning.

\- “Ahahaha!” Tennessee laughed out loud, “I mean, did you look at me? It’s already a miracle I actually made it that far. I’m not going to get myself killed intentionally but I’m not naive enough to think I’ll see the end of this.”

Gavin didn’t answer, but the gold of his irises got darker as a hint of sadness crossed his face. However, his determined look quickly came back and he looked at the pretty raven haired girl, locking eyes with her. Tennessee felt a bit uneasy under the intensity of his gaze, She felt like he silently promised her he would protect her from any danger they would meet along the way. Cop mode had been reactivated.

\- “We should be going,” he said after a while, adjusting the backpack on his shoulders.

\- “Let’s have that taken care of first, Rambo,” she replied, pointing at the burn on his thigh.

The pretty raven haired girl got him to turn around so she could access the supplies he was carrying and took a clean shirt out. She was keeping it for the moment the shirt she was wearing would get a tear or something, but apparently it wouldn’t see the end of her actual garment. Tennessee tore it into a few bands of cloth she wrapped around Gavin’s thigh to protect the wound until they found something suitable to clean and dress it appropriately. 

  
  
  
  



	7. Suppuration

They had been walking for an hour, maybe two, when Tennessee noticed her partner had been behind her for a while now. Usually, he would lead the way and would rarely let her walk in front of him more than a few minutes at the time. Suddenly suspicious about the change in the ex-police officer’s habits, the raven haired girl looked at him over her shoulder. What she saw made her heart sink all the way down to her feet. 

Gavin was several steps behind, heavily plodding along. His face was dangerously pale and his whole body was covered with sweat. He had that feverish thousand-yard stare and the girl could see the shivers running on his skin from where she was. The strong man was now limping badly and looked like he would be collapsing any second from now. Tennessee ran back to him. 

\- “God dammit, Gavin!” She cried out nervously.

He fell down on one knee, wincing in pain, the very second the girl laid a hand on him. She immediately took the heavy backpack off his back and knelt before him. Gavin sheepishly looked at her, but she felt like he wasn’t seeing her at all. It looked like he was simply looking through her, as if Tennessee was invisible. He was panting, completely out of breath, but the pretty raven haired girl had no idea about what was happening with him. She was at loss. 

Tennessee quickly looked around them. There was nothing interesting here since they reached the outskirts of the town. 

\- “What the fuck is wrong with you?” she whimpered.

\- “I’m… fine,” he replied in a raspy voice.

The girl delicately straightened his back, pushing on his shoulders, but Gavin barely reacted. Tennessee cupped his face with her trembling hands. His skin was burning hot under the palm of her hands. 

\- “Shit,” she cursed between her teeth, “Gavin? Hey, look at me. Jesus Christ, you should’ve said something. Why didn’t you tell me? How stupid can you be!? You’re an idiot. A fucking idiot!”

She looked down for a second, taking a deep breath.

\- “Ok, ok…” she said before she lifted her head up to lock her sage green eyes with the hazy gold of Gavin’s irises, “We need to get you outta here first. C’mon! I need you to focus a little. Just a little. Alright… Get up! C’mon boy, get up!”

The pretty girl threw the backpack on her shoulder and slipped under his arm. Since Gavin was considerably taller than her, Tennessee’s help was nearly useless. It only kept the man from tripping and falling every meter or so. She almost fell with him a few times, surprised by the weight she was suddenly supporting. 

They were progressing slowly. So slowly. And the sun progressively went down. As the shadows grew taller, Tennessee felt her anxiety growing with them. Each minute they spent out there brought them closer to the sunset, They needed to find a place to hide for the night, and they needed to find it now. 

She didn’t know how, but she managed to drag the man an impressive distance and made her way in a messenger’s company office. Thankfully, the garage door had been left half opened. Tennessee closed it behind them and pulled Gavin in the front store. The cold concrete floor in the garage didn’t feel like a smart choice in the actual situation. The young woman sat her partner against a wall and pressed the palms of her hands on his cheeks once more. He felt hotter and sweatier than he was before. 

Gavin was seemingly running a fever. But why? She had no idea. Not even the beginning of a hypothesis. Tennessee took the water canteen they were still sharing out of what was once her bag and placed it in Gavin’s hands. That’s when she finally obtained a reaction from him. 

\- “I said I’m… fine,” he said in a low, gruff voice.

\- “Oh, shut up! You’re obviously not, Captain Smart-ass.”

Despite the rudeness of her reply, Tennessee was delicately examining him, starting with his neck and arms. She didn’t hesitate to run her hands on the skin his clothes weren’t covering as she looked for an answer. She was searching for a sting, a bite, anything that could explain the fever’s sudden apparition. She didn’t find anything.

She proceeded to examine his lower body as Gavin was taking a first sip of water. He almost spit it right back in the pretty girl’s face when she lightly placed her hand on his thigh. She immediately looked back at his face, the cocky grin that would usually be lighting her features up conspicuously absent. The aventurine green of her eyes kept their deep and serious expression. 

\- “Well, you obviously felt that,” she said for herself as she went back to her investigation.

It’s exactly on that thigh that she found her answer. Out of options after she checked both his legs, she removed the pieces of her shirt she wrapped around his wound earlier. However, she wasn’t ready for what she found under the improvised bandage. Where there was only a light burn circled by the burnt fabric of his pants when they left the CDC Center, there was a badly infected wound now. 

The skin around the injury was red and swollen and the now exposed flesh was oozing a purulent liquid. How did it fester that much in less than three hours? How did it get that bad when the burn barely damaged the epidermis? Tennessee’s gaze followed the lines of the burnt fabric and, suddenly, she knew: the purplish jelly-like mutant that wrapped his gelatinous appendage around the man’s thigh was poisonous. She pursed her lips and clenched her teeth. This could take a turn for the worse…

Gavin didn’t look at his wound or ask about it, but when he saw how the beautiful green of the girl’s iris twitched then froze, he knew just how bad it was. He knew it wasn’t going to be easy. Tennessee gently took the water canteen from his hands and had a small sip as she briefly looked away. 

\- “It might hurt a little,” she said out of the blue.

The man didn’t have the time to look up and ask what she meant that he felt a sharp pain coming from his thigh. Tennessee was pouring some water on the wound, washing a bit of the pus away. Gavin clenched his fists and gritted his teeth, repressing a cry of pain. He was lucky the girl decided to keep most of what was left for him. He would need that water with such a bad fever. 

The pretty raven haired girl reached for their backpack and took out what was left of the shirt she tore in pieces earlier. She had nothing else to safely dress Gavin’s wound, but the bandages would need to be changed regularly if she wanted to save him from a slow and painful death. She wrapped the wound carefully. The cogs in her brains racing to find a solution to the actual problem and the many others that would soon be showing up. 

\- “There, I’m your fucking nurse now, jackass,” she said under her breath.

Gavin chuckled faintly and the girl looked up at him. She thought he seemed to feel a little better. His labored breath was now slow and steady and his glazed eyes got some life back into them, but they still expressed pain and exhaustion. The man’s skin was still pale and covered in sweat, but the shivers had lowered in intensity. Unfortunately, he would quickly fall back into his feverish lethargy without proper care. Tennessee placed the water canteen back into Gavin’s hands. 

\- “Drink, but try to make it last until I find some more,” she said as she dug through the supplies the backpack contained.

She threw the blanket at him then closed the bag quickly when she saw he was struggling to unfold it. She took the woolen blanket back and placed it on the man’s shoulders. As the girl walked away, Gavin suddenly reached for her, weakly wrapping his fingers around her wrist. 

\- “Don’t,” he said in a faint voice before taking another breath, “Don’t go without me. It’s not… safe. Let me … protect you.”

The young woman stopped and looked at him. The distress and the pain she could read in his golden gaze had nothing to do with what was happening here. The psychological wound responsible for it was way deeper than the physical injury she had to deal with and even though it obviously belonged to the man’s past, that wound wasn’t completely healed yet. Tennessee squatted next to the ex-police officer and looked straight into the amber of his irises. Her own eyes were glowing with a hint of annoyance, but also with her concern for him, no matter how hard she tried to hide it. 

\- “If I’m not going,” she replied with a stern voice, “you’ll be dead in three days.”

Gavin kept staring right back into her gorgeous sage green eyes. It was unreasonable and probably induced by the fever, but he simply couldn’t let her go. 

\- “I’ll be fine,” he said in a raspy voice, “I just… I just need to rest a little.”

\- “Yeah, my ass,” she answered with a frown, taking her wrist out of the grip of his fingers, “As far as I know, I survived a year and a half without you and apparently I did better than you. I’ll be careful. I’ll be fine.”

The miserable look he gave her was literally begging her not to go. Tennessee remained silent for a moment, standing still in front of him, but she finally let out a heavy sigh, defeated… or so it seemed. 

\- “Alright, fine!” she huffed, “I won’t go. But I swear I’m not going to dig a hole for you when you’ll be dead. Now you’re going to shut the fuck up and rest, because that’s the only thing you can do. I’ll set our things up.”

She walked to their backpack, angrily picking up the rolled sleeping bag tied to it, and suddenly turned back to face the ex-police officer, a finger pointed at him as if she was scolding a child. 

\- “And no fucking arguing! Or I’m putting you out of your misery on the spot! Understood?”

Gavin answered with a faint nod, accompanied with the twitch of a smile at the corner of his lips. He leaned his head on the wall behind him. As he was closing his eyes, the pretty raven haired girl busied herself with setting the camp up for the night, maybe even longer, and exploring their new shelter.

\---- ---- ---- ----

Gavin had been sleeping for an hour or two when the young woman gently, well gently in her own ways, woke him up. She had found some of those thick polyethylene foam panels the employees were using to secure the packages before sending them out for deliveries back then. Today, however, they became a fifteen (15) inch thick makeshift mattress for Gavin. The ceramic floor was already cold when they came in, but it only became colder as the night fell on them. 

When the ex-police officer started trembling again, covering his skin with sweat once more, Tennessee decided it was time to wake him up, at least for a few minutes. She helped him to take his bulletproof vest off to make him more comfortable and moved him to his new bed. It wasn’t long before the man went back to sleep, leaving the raven haired girl alone with her restless mind. 

She then proceeded to build herself a similar mat close to the one she made for Gavin earlier. The girl took a break to eat a little, mostly resorting to the crackers she didn’t finish the night she met the man. That’s all she was able to eat. her concern for him tying her stomach in knots. 

In the end, Tennessee didn’t even use the bed she made for herself. She sat directly on the ground next to Gavin, her back against the wall. She kept an eye on him through the whole night, monitoring the man’s fever. Unfortunately, only a few hours after the night swallowed everything around them, his fever spiked and his speech became delirious. 

Gavin seemed awake but none of his slurred words would make any sense. Tennessee had been lucky enough to find one of those 5 gallons bottles meant for water dispensers in the staff room. It was only half full but it was more than they would need to hold through the night. It wouldn’t be possible to go out before the morning without really risking her life since mutants were more active at night, but she intended to leave as soon as the sun would rise regardless of what Gavin said earlier. He would probably be unconscious the whole time she’d be gone anyway. 

Until then, the pretty raven haired girl regularly dampened a clean piece of cloth, ripped off one of the company’s shirts she found in the supervisor’s office, and placed it on Gavin’s forehead. She also used another piece of the light cotton fabric to let a few drops of water slip through his lips from time to time. It wouldn’t make him feel better, but it would at least keep him from getting worse a bit longer. Tennessee didn’t really sleep. She unintentionally fell asleep a few times, but she woke up a few minutes later every time she did.

When the first rays of light showed up, the girl jumped on her feet. She crafted another bag with the remaining pieces of the shirt she tore into pieces earlier and the other identical shirt she left intact until now. She wanted to be sure she would be able to bring back everything Gavin needed to get rid of this terrible infection. 

She silently took off after she emptied their backpack by the man’s bed, checking on him one last time. She remembered they had walked by a small pharmacy the previous day, a little before Gavin collapsed, and that’s where she intended to go. 

The place looked like it avoided most of the looters that were scouting the streets until mutants finally appeared in the area. The glass door had been shattered to pieces, but every other window was still intact. Thinking about it, a little hope enlightened Tennessee’s heart and she sped up the pace.

She didn’t meet any mutant on the way to the pharmacy, but she was perfectly aware of her surroundings, as always. The year that just passed by forced her to develop some essential reflexes in order to survive. 

However, she quickly felt like something was missing. Only the sound of her own footsteps was accompanying her and it left her with an unpleasant, and quite unexpected, feeling of loneliness.

When she finally reached the pharmacy, quickly going in through the lower half of the shattered door with agility, the girl almost shed a tear of joy. Most of the food was gone already, but everything else was still there, in large quantities. Tennessee silently trotted to the First Aid section after she gathered some of the water bottles that were scattered on the ground by the entrance. 

In the first alley she explored, the pretty raven haired girl picked up one of those pre-made First Aid kits. However, Gavin needed way more than what the red casing contained now. She then filled her backpack and makeshift bag with gauze, bandages, anti-inflammatory medicines, antiseptics and every other item she could need to take care of the man’s wound until it’s complete disappearance. 

Satisfied with the supplies she gathered, Tennessee jumped over the pharmacist counter to look for antibiotics. She tried to remember what her grandmother taught her about medicines but it was buried way too far in her mind for her to remember anything besides a few names. As she was resolving to get every medicine that seemed familiar to her, the girl heard that terrible sound that was already haunting her worst nightmares: The shrill cries of a Shrieker. It was soon followed by another one, coming from closer. A group of Shriekers was coming her way and apparently, with frequency of their ear piercing utterances, they were hunting. They were probably aware of her presence already…

Tennessee threw every antibiotic she recognized in her bag then looked at the door on the other side of the room. That exit wasn’t an option anymore. Thankfully, the young woman was sticking to her habits and she already had a list of potential escape plans before she even entered the building. 

She turned tail and ran to the pharmacist office, locking the door behind her. There was a small window on the wall behind the desk, barely wide enough for someone to pass through it. But the raven haired girl wasn’t just your average Miss Nobody. Her svelte body went through smaller openings without any problem. After sliding the window open and bursting out the screen, she placed her hands on the edge and pulled herself through it in a short series of smooth and sylphlike moves. 

Her feet met the ground on the other side with a faint, nearly inaudible thud. The girl was ready to sprint through the back alley she landed in when that nightmarish complaint she knew too well reverberated in her skull. The closer the Shriekers were, the more painful it was to hear their call. 

A shadow moved at the end of the alley and Tennessee snapped out of that short moment of disorientation Shrieker’s lamentations always caused. Quick and agile, she jumped on a nearby dumpster, then right to a retractable emergency ladder that led to a small balcony made of iron. From there she would be able to take the few flights of stairs and climb all the way up to the roof. 

The buildings on that street were all similar in height with little to no space between them. It would be easy for the cat-like girl to reach the previous intersection and make her way back to the ground through another fire escape. She cautiously made her way to the last building, right under—or should I say over—the Shriekers noses. 

Unfortunately, some of the fixations were too rusty to withstand the very little weight the girl represented and fell apart when she tried to use the emergency ladder. Tennessee’s heart skipped a beat and everything happened in slow motion for her. She saw the bolt breaking down and the two metal pieces parting from one other. She felt the sudden drop and saw the ground coming closer. Then, she felt the choc in her arm when the ladder stopped its fall, held in the air by the opposite side’s fixation.

She couldn’t tell if she screamed or not since all she could hear was the frantic pounding of her heart as she ended up suspended by one hand in the middle of a ladder dangling in mid-air. However, according to the burning sensation in her throat, the raven haired girl knew she probably screamed her lungs out… and that wasn’t good at all. As confirmation of her thoughts, the screeching voice of a Shrieker echoed in the distance. They heard her. No doubt they did. 

Tennessee could feel the blood pulsing in her veins. The adrenaline turned it into molten lava, rushing through her whole body. Her brain was going through every possible scenario, trying to find the one that would give her the best chance to survive. The sting in her hand told her she had no more time to think, that she needed to move, now. 

The girl slowly and very carefully brought her other hand and feet to the unstable ladder. She proceeded to go down the few rung left below her. The closer to the ground she would be, the better chances she would have to land on her feet and make a run for it. The slightest injury slowing her down could be a death sentence for her in the actual situation. 

Thankfully, Tennessee had some experience. These reckless parkour moments weren’t unusual for her and it's exactly this experience that saved her when it all began. Taking a deep breath, the pretty girl let go of the ladder… and smoothly landed on her feet, absorbing the shock with a forward roll. Wasting no time, she jumped back up and left the area on the double. 

\---- ---- ---- ----

The raven haired girl quickly threw the Shriekers off her tail, but she kept jogging until she got within sight of their shelter. As she walked in, she immediately noticed that Gavin wasn’t in his bed anymore. 

Her heart sank for a split second but she saw him a little further in the room, his back against the wall under one of the boarded up windows of the building. This one was missing a board around waist height, like a few other ones. The people that installed them were either low on boards or they were planning to lock themselves in there and keep watch through the openings. They obviously never made it to the second part of their plan since the place was still sparkling clean, which was incompatible with a long-term hideout like this. 

With a loud, displeased grunt, Tennessee carelessly dropped her bags on the ground and ran up to the man. He apparently passed out by that window as he was watching for her. The girl put her hands on his shoulders and shook him up a little. He wasn’t in a better shape than when she left, but he wasn’t that worse if he made it to that window all by himself. 

He was showing the same awful, waxen pallor and his clothes were soaked in sweat but the man opened his eyes and looked at her. The pretty raven haired girl’s cheeks were all pink now, but it was impossible to tell if it was from running, relief, or anger. It was probably a little of all these. She furrowed her brows and tightened her grip on the man. 

\- “What the actual fuck were you thinking!?” she said in a loud voice, “You can’t even stand on your own two feet but you still got the fuck out of that bed! I can’t fucking believe it! How dumb can you be!? You want to die or what?”

Gavin sheepishly stared into her beautiful sage green eyes, the emotion making them glisten like they never did before. They reminded him of the treetops on a windy day. The girl before him was a foulmouthed and straightforward young woman but, as far as he knew, the vivid green of her irises never wavered under any kind of emotion. Her beautiful features always hinted at her inherent rudeness and constant anger, but her eyes always remained as calm as a millpond. The man took a short breath in before he answered, but Tennessee already knew what he would say.

\- “I was watching to see when you come back… I had to make sure you were okay.”

Despite all her anticipation, all her exasperation disappeared in a split second, leaving a brief expression of surprise on the girl’s face. Of course, the young woman immediately put her mask of cheekiness back on. There was nothing showing on the outside anymore, but on the inside, the thick ice around her heart melted a little. 

Since her grandmother passed away, almost a decade earlier, no one watched for the moment she would be back home. Of course, her bandmates cared for her like a family but they weren’t trying to protect her from the slightest threat like the ex-police officer was. They would’ve faced any danger with her but they also knew the wild raven haired girl was perfectly able to handle herself. Besides that, she was often the one “protecting” the rest of her crew, standing up for them for a yes or a no. After a while, no one dared to mess with any of them. 

However, Tennessee had a backstory with them. She bonded deeply with them over time. But that man she met less than a week before was genuinely worried about her and cared for her. He barely knew her, but he didn’t want her to be exposed to any kind of danger. He didn’t want her to get hurt. 

Hissing loudly, the raven haired girl helped him to get up and walked him back to his makeshift bed. 

\- “Well, I’m back now so you can stop being a damn idiot,” she huffed as she got him to sit on the pile of polyethylene panels.

Gavin must’ve been dizzy because he placed his elbows on his thighs and leaned forward a little. Tennessee picked up her bags and started to rummage through her loot. She got a rectangular package made of cardboard out and quickly opened it. On the box it read “Ibuprofen”. Inside, two plastic cartridges covered in a thin foil layer contained about twenty-five (25) tablets each, separately encapsulated. The girl popped out two of them and delicately placed them in Gavin’s hand. 

\- “There, let’s start with that. It should help you with the fever...”

Her tone was softer than he would’ve imagined, and she moved in a gentler way. Tennessee sat next to him and stretched her arm on the side, picking the water canteen up to hand it over to the man she was considering to call her friend now. As he swallowed the medicine, she took one of the water bottles she brought back from the pharmacy and had a few sips herself. 

Gavin put the water canteen down and laid on the bed, wincing in pain. They weren’t out of the woods yet, and the worst was yet to come. Tennessee slowly stood up and took both her coat and jacket off, throwing them on her bed a few steps away. She gently sat back on the edge of the man’s bed and looked at the backpack at her feet. When her aventurine stone eyes returned to the man, she could feel her heart throbbing in her throat. If it was possible, she would’ve liked to postpone the moment she would take care of that ugly wound, but they already waited long enough. 

Gavin’s lips were dry and crackling, hinting the raven haired girl about his dehydration state. Even though he had been drinking water regularly, the fever was taking its toll on him. His bangs were soaked with sweat, adhering to the skin of his forehead, and he was still breathing faster than he should’ve been. Tennessee softly pushed a few strands of his chestnut hair on the side with the tip of her fingers, ending her move with a shy and gentle stroke along his cheek and jawline. 

Gavin slowly opened his eyes. The breathtaking golden shades of his irises had faded away, the fever giving them a glazed look. For what was probably the first time in her life, the blunt and honest girl was at a loss for words. With a trembling hand, the man wrapped his fingers around her wrist and stared at her for a while. The pretty girl wasn’t sure if he intended to be gazing at her like that or if it was induced by the fever, but a shiver ran up her arm, from the wrist Gavin was holding to her shoulder. 

\- “Do it,” he said in a faint voice.

\- “Do what?” she replied, pulling her hand away as if the sound of their voices suddenly broke the enchantment.

\- “Do it.”

With the tone of his voice, Tennessee couldn’t pretend she didn’t know what he meant anymore. She swallowed her apprehension and slowly breathed out. 

\- “Alright.”

Her voice was steady and confident. She knew what she needed to do and how she would do it. The problem wasn’t there at all. Her discomfort came from the fact that she was way too well-aware that, without stronger pain killing medicines than what she managed to find, cleansing and dressing that nasty wound would be quite painful. They didn’t need words to make it clear. They both knew, but Gavin was apparently ready to go through it.

The alternative wasn’t really an option. It would only lead to a slow and painful death. Tennessee slowly slid off the bed to kneel by the medical supplies she brought back from her expedition at the pharmacy. She took a small box of latex gloves and the debridement kit she improvised with what was available there out and placed them on the bed. 

The young woman sat back next to Gavin and untied one of the leather laces wrapped around one of her wrists. She quickly turned her thick ponytail into a loose but solid bun, a few locks of her dark waved hair nicely sticking out. Whatever that girl was doing, she was always looking gorgeous. Her stylish appearance, kept up without any efforts or mirror to look into, almost made Gavin feel like the world was just the same as he always knew for a few seconds.

Tennessee disinfected her hands with the hand sanitizer she brought back and put a pair of gloves on. She always hated the skin-tight sensation of these gloves and that’s mostly what kept her from considering being a nurse someday, like her grandmother was. When she realized she hated the most basic health care item after her Nana passed away, the teen she was then turned to music.

However, the few strands of knowledge the old lady managed to teach her came in handy in many situations. It would be quite useful today too. The raven haired girl carefully opened every packaging around the items she would need without taking them out right away then took a deep breath in, a serious look on her face. She undid the pieces of cloth she used as a bandage the night before and pressed her lips together.

The wound under it wasn’t looking any better at all. The pus she washed away was back in even greater quantity and all the skin the mutant touched completely melted away, exposing the pink and swollen flesh underneath. The outline of the contact surface was also red and inflamed. When she delicately placed her hand on his thigh, Gavin twitched and the girl felt the burning heat of his skin through his pants. No. It wouldn’t do. Not yet. 

\- “You might want to bite down on something,” she said with an unusually flat voice and a grim look on her beautiful face.

Gavin was staring at her, captivated by how she suddenly looked years older. He was a little hazy from the fever spike he had earlier, but he was conscious and lucid, which he definitely wasn’t when the girl left in the morning. The man nodded faintly and stood up on his elbows. Tennessee immediately reached out and steadied him in a seated position as he proceeded to unbutton his uniform shirt.

The light undershirt he was wearing adhered to his chest and revealed the attractive lines of his body even before he removed it. The thin layer of sweat covering him added an alluring glow to the outline of his muscles. Tennessee discretely bit her lower lip and averted her gaze. She almost lost her focus there, distracted by the enticing appearance of her teammate. She shouldn’t look at a man in his situation like she would be looking at her next snack! And not any type of snack, the bed type of snack. Aware of her inappropriate behavior, the pretty raven haired girl silently scolded herself until Gavin was ready to keep going.

The man rolled his undershirt and laid on the bed again, biting on his improvised bite guard. Tennessee looked back at the wound.

\- “Try to focus on something else.”

Without giving her friend the chance to proceed with what she just said, the girl removed a first chunk of necrotic tissue with the forceps she picked up from the bed. All the tools she would need were neatly placed on a disposable sheet. The makeshift debridement kit she managed to put up was in no way inferior to the ones she could’ve found in a hospital. She did a pretty good job there, despite the difficulties she encountered. 

Unfortunately, Gavin’s body stiffened and he unintentionally moved his injured leg as a muffled grunt of pain was heard through the fabric of his undershirt. Tennessee gritted her teeth until the man relaxed. Her heart was pounding in her chest, but it was well hidden behind the walls of her inner fortress. 

\- “What a softie!” she said in a huff, “I’ll never be able to go through that if you keep squirming like that! I almost stuck that thing right into it with all your twists and turns.”

The girl put the piece of rotting flesh on the gauze pad she previously set nearby with the rest of the medical supplies. Gavin was panting heavily, but Tennessee couldn’t just give him a break. The longer this would take, the more painful it would be. The young woman looked up at him from head to toes, trying to think of something. 

Suddenly, without hesitation nor an ounce of shame, the pretty raven haired girl climbed on the makeshift bed and threw her leg over the man’s hips, straddling him as if it was completely natural. Even in pain and feverish, Gavin’s ears grew redder as he gasped in surprise. 

\- “Try not to enjoy the view too much,” she said, leaning forward to correctly position herself over the injury, “And if you ever try to touch, I’ll make this feel a lot worse than it has to.”

The young woman could feel how Gavin was even stiffer than before and half a smile lifted the corner of her luscious lips for a split second. She couldn’t help but imagine the look the poor man probably had on his face right now. If she didn’t have a way more important task to accomplish, and if he wasn’t running a terrible fever, Tennessee would’ve teased the living hell out of him. She placed her free hand just above his knee, under the wound and steadied her grip on the forceps. Both of them were impatient to be done with this painful activity. 

\---- ----- ---- -----

Gavin’s injury was cleaned and every purulent bits were removed pretty quickly after that. Once she was done, what the raven haired girl had before her eyes was a pretty neat wound, the visible flesh showing a healthy shade of pink. However, the cheeky imp Tennessee didn't free her victim until it was disinfected thoroughly and correctly wrapped. After making sure the bandage wasn’t too loose or too tight, the young woman finally got off of him.

Sweat was still glowing on his skin, but the pretty raven haired girl thought he looked way better than he did when she found him, unconscious by the window. The man’s fever must’ve been coming down because the gold of his eyes was clearer and he was breathing better. Unfortunately, they would need to repeat the whole process many times. At least once a day, maybe twice, until it heals. However, if the infection wasn’t coming back, Gavin was mostly out of trouble. 

Thanks to the impish fairy he teamed with less than a week ago, he had painkillers to make his recovery a little more comfortable and antibiotics to get rid of the infection caused by the jelly-like monster’s poison. With that trip to the pharmacy, regardless of how hazardous it was for her, Tennessee saved his life. Now, all he needed was time and rest. Unlike the night before, their sleep would be peaceful and both of them would have renewed strengths in the morning. 

Day after day, Gavin was getting better. His fever gradually went down and never came back. Every time she had to clean his wound, Tennessee would find less pus and infected material. Thankfully, despite the ugly infection he got from that mutant, the wound wasn’t too deep and it would heal quickly. A few days later, Gavin was even able to walk by himself. 

However, when he expressed his intention to leave as soon as possible, the pretty raven haired girl immediately made it clear: she wouldn’t let him walk out that door before she was satisfied with the look of his injury. She even threatened to tie him to his bed at some point, but in the end, they stayed. 

Over the days, the duo got to know each other a little better. Both of them refrained from revealing anything too important about themselves, but they got to get familiar with the other’s personality. They were thrusting each other better and it would make their life a lot easier when they’ll be back into the wild. 

They had been resting for about a week when Tennessee pulled a card deck out of her backpack, surprising her teammate when she asked him if he wanted to play. A little suspicious at first, Gavin agreed and she proceeded to tell him what she had in mind. They would play any card game they wanted, but the winner would get to ask a question the loser would have to answer. If the game was a tie, they would both need to make a random statement about themselves. The idea was interesting enough and the cards were quickly distributed. 

Gavin quickly discovered the pretty raven haired girl was a pro at all the card games he could think of. She won almost every game they played that night and the few victories he managed to get felt like they had been deliberately lost. Of course, Tennessee let him win on purpose.

It was getting late when the young woman finally ran out of questions. However, when she met the warm gold of the man’s gaze, one last question came to her mind as their actual game was reaching its end. A single look into the splendid sage green of her irises told Gavin it wouldn’t be another banal question. It wouldn’t have anything in common with the ones she asked throughout the night. 

\- “So...” she said, staring right back at him, half a small on her pretty raspberry lips, “Tell me… why do you want this vaccine so bad when there’s just a few survivors left out there? I mean, I get why you’d want the other thing against the mutants but the vaccine would only be useful to those sheltered into bunkers, right? The survivors that are still walking this goddamn earth and didn’t turn into mutants are immune. So, what’s the point?” the girl added, thinking out loud.

Tennessee never looked away. She witnessed the entire transformation of the man’s face and the change in his eyes. The light in the amber of his gaze disappeared and their usual kindness grew dim. All that was left behind was a grieving look on his face and hunched back. He suddenly looked like he was carrying the weight of the world on his shoulders, all by himself. 

The pretty girl thought she saw a hint of loneliness in Gavin’s eyes after a few seconds, but she couldn’t tell if it was reality or a trick of her mind. However, what got to her the most was how tired he looked. Even at the peak of his feverish episode, he never seemed so exhausted. 

At that moment, the ex-police officer looked like all the life had been drained from him. Then, the sudden fatigue that washed across his face was replaced with a resolute expression. Even though the raven haired girl was still able to see the gleaming sadness in the depths of his eyes, he finally spoke up. 

\- “I refuse to turn my back on them… I refuse to abandon anyone still out there.”

His voice was calm and steady, but Tennessee immediately felt that it was hiding a deep wound, a wound that medicines and medical attention couldn’t heal, unlike the one on his thigh. Only time would make it better, but even there, she had the impression it wasn’t going to be that easy. 

She wondered if the person he hid behind his pain was still alive. Maybe in one of those bunkers she couldn’t get in? As she was listing an infinite number of possible scenarios about what may or may not have happened to the ex-police officer's friends and loved ones, a sharp pain she thought she was over with sneakily made its way back to her. It was only one thought, one short sentence, but it felt like a knife cutting through her flesh to rip her heart out: The very few people she ever cared for were, without a single doubt, all dead. 

There was no hope subsisting for her to reunite with them somehow. How did she know for sure? She saw them die one after the other. She looked down, locking her eyes on the few cards she was still holding, and took a deep breath.

\- “Well… If I had anyone left out there, I guess I’d be glad if someone like you was trying to help them,” she said with a bittersweet voice, trying to keep it from trembling as she remembered faces she tried so desperately to bury deep down into her mind.

Gavin looked at her, a comprehensive look on his face. He knew the girl was sincere, and that it was probably hard for her to open herself to him enough to say something like that. She did everything she could not to develop any kind of bond with him, but yet, she still saved his life without a single thought for her own safety when he needed it. 

Little by little, Gavin was starting to appreciate that rough-mannered Valkyrie-like young woman that the end of the world put on his path. She was so fine and delicate in appearance, but yet she was a feisty one. 

The light ambiance the card games settled was now gone, but they felt closer. Way closer than they ever have been. They wouldn’t talk much that night, but it never felt awkward for either of them. They were both lost in their thoughts and respected the other’s silence at the same time. They would leave their actual shelter in a few days, but that short break gave them a better understanding of their partner and solidified the team they formed. 


	8. Shameless

A little more than three weeks had gone by since they left the messenger’s company when their food supplies reached a critical point. Gavin’s injury had been healing impressively fast and only a discrete change in the skin’s coloration remained on his thigh by then. However, they couldn’t go any further without restocking. 

The two young adults left the country roads and forests they were usually travelling on to enter the next small town they found on their way. The smaller the city would be, the less mutants they’d find roaming in the streets.

They just entered that rural township when they stumbled upon a private food market, fused with what seemed like a pharmacy. The front store was in a pretty bad shape: Shattered windows and one or two shelving units thrown in the middle of the road. 

Neither of them were really enthusiastic when they circled the building, but they were quite happy to discover that, besides what they saw outside, the place had been left untouched. A few shelves had been tipped over but their content was still there, scattered on the floor. 

The duo would easily be able to fill both their backpacks – since Gavin finally found one for himself along the way – with enough food to last a month, at the very least, even if they weren’t able to find anything else by then. 

They carefully entered the marketplace, countless glass shards crunching under their feet. The two young adults had a serious look on their faces, but their eyes were smiling. These kinds of small victories were like balm to their hearts, a short relief from the constant pressure they were under since the world they knew disappeared. 

Without a single word, they split, both covering their half of the space the shop represented. Tennessee happened to get the half where the pharmacy was. Well, pharmacy might’ve been a big word for what it really was. There was no prescription counter. It was mostly a separated check out counter surrounded by a few shelving units presenting a pretty surprising variety of “over the counter” medicines and some “natural” remedies. 

The duo’s medical supplies were still quite satisfying, but they could pass by something really useful if they weren’t meticulous enough when they were searching a building.

Around the corner of an aisle, the pretty raven haired girl came across a completely empty shelf. Raising her brows, she walked up to it, wondering what could’ve been displayed there since there were no tags anywhere. Every other shelf was filled with perfectly aligned items. Tennessee let her hand run across the dusty shelf, but there was no clue about what was stocked there that could’ve been sought after. 

She was about to turn around and search the grocery store area when the tip of her shoe knocked something over. She looked down and discovered a cardboard box, not exactly small nor big, with familiar colors and designs. The girl picked it up with a smug smile on her pretty raspberry lips. Well, THAT wasn’t expected. But it could get pretty interesting.

\- “Hey, Captain!” she called out, “I found something!”

Gavin quickly appeared behind her, a curious look on his face. He had no idea why Tennessee would call for him, since she was always doing everything on her own without ever referring to him, unless it was absolutely necessary. She turned around and the first thing the man noticed was the smile on her face. He immediately got a little suspicious. It was just as arrogant as ever, but there was also something more. Something that felt both seductive and predatory. 

\- “Wanna have fun?” the girl said in a low, sultry voice.

As she spoke, the young woman raised her hand at her shoulder level, drawing Gavin’s attention to what she was holding. The package in her hand was a fifty-eight (58) condoms pack. Her question suddenly got clearer, but the poor man looked more shocked than uncomfortable like she thought he would. It was so unexpected, that embarrassment hadn’t reached him yet. A few long seconds later, a cocked brow and a puzzled look on his face, Gavin spoke up. 

\- “You mean...?”

Even though he perfectly understood what she said, he couldn’t believe she was serious. Tennessee’s entire attitude had been quite hostile since the very beginning. She turned out to be a pretty satisfying survival teammate and saved him when he was in trouble, but that reached a whole new level.

With her unapproachable behaviour, Gavin didn’t even think about what he would answer. He was too busy trying to figure out if she was really trying to have sex with him or if she was pulling another trick on him. Actually, he wouldn’t be surprised if it was. That girl was perfectly able to drag him into this discussion and slap him for saying “yes”. The man suddenly thought she should be coming with a “handle with care” warning tag, or any kind of notice about her explosive temper. A heavy sigh slipped through her luscious lips and she rolled her eyes, her smile turning into an exasperated expression. 

\- “Yes. I’m asking you if you wanna go to Disney,” she said, “Want it or not? Limited time offer.”

\- “Well, uhhh...”

The pretty raven haired girl’s enticing smile came back right away. He might be hesitant, but he didn’t say no. She locked her hypnotizing aventurine green gaze to Gavin’s eyes and slowly, seductively opened the box she was still holding to pull out one of the square foil it contained. Tennessee put the cardboard packaging down on the empty shelf beside her – apparently she wasn’t the only one thinking about “having fun” along the apocalypse – and dropped her coat next to it as she tucked the foil between her breasts.

She was greatly enjoying the man’s facial expression. It was an interesting mix of suspicion and embarrassment, with a hint of a deer in the headlights look. With the movement of a tigress, slow, soft and swaying, the cat-like girl walked up to him. She kept looking straight in the gold of his irises the whole time and, with her hand lightly placed on his chest, got him to back off a little, placing him a step away from the counter behind him. 

In a single move, the young woman quickly pulled on both sides of Gavin’s bulletproof vest, getting the strong velcro bands that were keeping it tightly closed open, and peeled it off of him. Tennessee was a bit surprised he hadn’t pushed her off yet, but he wasn’t helping either. His face had gone from surprise to concentration, but Gavin was simply staring at her and following her every move, just as if he was analyzing the situation. 

The raven haired girl took her time and unbuttoned his uniform shirt, pressing herself against his body. The man’s ears had already turned red a long time ago, but he felt his whole face flush this time. He quickly averted his gaze, flustered. His reaction drew another ravening smile from the young woman as she leaned against his chest some more to steady herself and unzip her boots. She tossed them on the side with a flick of her foot and slowly stripped off her leggings, sliding them down her interminable legs along with her thigh-high socks.

The floor was cold under her feet, but she barely noticed it. She had to stand on the tip of her toes anyway. Tennessee placed one of her bare legs between his and slid her hands up the man’s chest, over his undershirt, to finally place them on his shoulders. She lifted her head up, Gavin’s nose brushing hers and their breaths mingling, and looked at him through her dense eyelashes. Her voice was surprisingly soft and warm when she seductively whispered:

\- “You can tell me to stop anytime, you know...”

But Gavin didn’t say anything. He gulped nervously, his Adam’s apple moving up and down right before the girl’s eyes when she ran her hands down his arms. She knew he was strong, but feeling his muscles under the palm of her hands brought a clearer picture to her mind... and she liked it. 

Tennessee brought the man’s hands to her abdomen, under both her shirt and tank top. Gavin delicately pressed his hands on the girl’s waist, right where she left them. As he slowly, really slowly lowered his hands down to her hips, his thumbs softly stroking her skin, she ran her own hands below his undershirt. 

Little by little, the pretty raven haired girl could feel his hesitation melting away. She had just the right rhythm to lower the ex-police officer’s defences. Just a little more and she could close the trap behind the poor man. The same feline aura coming from her every move, slow and graceful, Tennessee removed her hands from him to hook her fingers under the hem of her shirt. She took it off and carelessly dropped it on the ground next to them. 

Besides his thumbs delicately brushing the curve of her hips, Gavin’s hands had not moved. Was he afraid of her? That thought had the girl chuckling quietly. He was so strong and tall while she was so petite and delicate. Her bad manners and short temper were the biggest threats she represented. What could she do against him? He could hold her down with one hand! 

Tennessee teasingly played with the hem of his undershirt, already lifted a little above his belly button from her previous run. It was still discrete, but she could feel the man’s breath accelerating despite the cool expression on his face. Just a little more...

The young woman let the tip of her fingers run on his skin, following the appealing lines of his muscles. The more she ran her hands up, the more skin she revealed to her eyes. For the moment, however, she kept her eyes on the amber of Gavin’s irises. 

‘ _Gotcha_ ,’ she thought. A tiny, nearly unnoticeable change in the depth of Gavin’s golden gaze told her she successfully seduced her prey into her trap. She just needed to set it off. One of the girl’s hands slowly went all the way down his torso, always temptingly brushing the tip of her fingers along the slightest muscle she encountered. She never broke the eye-contact she established in the beginning, not even when she unbuckled his belt to slide her hand down his pants, seductively caressing his crotch over his underwear. 

Her lips gently brushing his jawline and her breath lingering on his skin, Tennessee finally snared the handsome man she took so long to lure into her game. 

\- “You’re final answer, Officer Gavin?” she purred into the crook of his neck. 

Gavin firmly pressed his hands on her hips and something changed in his eyes. It felt like he finally stopped to look through her and saw the gorgeous young woman he had in his arms, contemplating her with restraint and desire. Even without that sultry look on her face, Gavin would’ve said yes almost right away if she had not been so unapproachable.

He answered with a short nod and Tennessee’s smile widened. Her reaction was immediate. She pressed herself harder against him and lifted the waist of his boxer briefs to pull them down, along with his pants. His excitement revealed to her eyes, she bit her lower lip, a familiar warmth spreading from between her legs to her stomach as she considered his significant size. 

She slowly knelt in front of him, leaving a trail of hungry kisses on his skin on her way down. 

\- “Good boy...” she muttered as she wrapped her delicate fingers around his erection and gave it a few gentle strokes.

The look she gave him when she kissed the tip of his cock sent a strong shiver down Gavin’s spine and he averted his gaze. His cheeks and ears grew redder when she took him into her mouth. Tennessee bobbed her head back and forth, taking more of him in with every new motion. 

Gavin tipped his head back and groaned as the pretty raven haired girl pumped and stroked him with more enthusiasm. Taking her time, she slowed down a moment later to swirl her tongue around the tip of his shaft. The gorgeous young woman at his feet obviously had no intention to give him the slightest chance. She wouldn’t allow him to last longer than what she wanted. 

She pulled off, but kept stroking his whole length. The girl ran her free hand from his hips to his stomach, slowly licking him from the base of his cock to its tip as she looked up to catch a glimpse of his actual expression. Unfortunately, with his head up the way it was, Tennessee couldn’t see anything, but Gavin’s chest heaved and sank with every new breath. 

A low growl slipped through his parted lips when she took him back into the warmth of her mouth. Her rhythm was slower, but the way her tongue rubbed against him felt even better than it previously did. Gavin gripped on the edge of the counter behind him as his hips jerked, hinting the girl he was getting close to his release. 

Tennessee pulled off again and seductively licked her lips, wiping what was left of her saliva with the back of the hand she removed of his chest. She left a trail of sensual kisses all over his length then looked up at him, resuming her stroking motions. 

\- “Do you think you can last two rounds?” she said with a taunting voice.

Feeling the girl’s breath over him as she spoke, Gavin lowered his head. His mind was blank and he couldn’t grasp on the meaning of her words, no matter how hard he tried. She never gave him the opportunity to answer anyway. As soon as her gaze met the hazy gold of his eyes, Tennessee took him back into her mouth and bobbed her head quickly. She pumped harder, faster, and she tightened the grip of her fingers around his manhood. 

Gavin gasped and one of his hands left the counter and grasped on her hair, his fingers disappearing into the dark braid on top of the girl’s head. 

He was panting heavily when the gorgeous raven haired girl finished him off, drawing one last groan out of him. The man clenched his teeth and his seed filled her mouth. Tennessee swallowed it all with a soft and seductive moan of satisfaction as Gavin slid down the counter. 

Sitting back on her heels, the girl removed his hand from her hair with a quiet chuckle and wiped her mouth with the back of her hand, like she previously did. She could feel the dry saliva she left on her skin earlier. With that cocky grin of hers, she climbed up on his lap.

Gavin was catching his breath as the gold of his irises gradually got rid of the hazy veil of pleasure his orgasm left behind. One of his hands timidly moved up her thigh and gently brushed the warm and soft skin under the pulp of his fingers. 

Tennessee enjoyed every minute he needed to retrieve his train of thought. The man seemed about to say something, but she deliberately interrupted him. She leaned on him, pressing her forehead on his and rubbing their noses together. The luscious raven haired girl cupped his cheek with one of her hands and sent the other running through his silken chestnut hair. 

\- “You better be as tough as you look...” she said in a hushed tone.

She rolled her hips against him, keeping her lips close enough to feel their breaths merge, but far enough to avoid his mouth from catching hers, no matter how hard he would try to steal a kiss from the untameable woman straddling him. Only separated by the thin cotton of her panties, Tennessee felt the man’s flaccid penis hardening again. 

The warmth between her legs had turned into excitement, its distinctive humidity progressively getting through the fabric. She kept on that slow, sensual rhythm, shamelessly grinding on him and pressing her breast harder against his chest. They were almost ready for round two.

The girl pulled herself from the ex-police officer, backing off on her knees just enough to gain access to his now fully erected cock. She picked up the square foil from her voluptuous and generous bosom and delicately tore it open. The luscious young woman then pulled its content out the tin foil envelope and dodged the hand Gavin reached out to her. She smiled and winked at him arrogantly. He thought he could take the lead… but he didn’t know the girl would never let him. With a pinch at the top, Tennessee unrolled the condom down his shaft. It was obviously not her first tango. And probably not her second either.

Resigned, Gavin impatiently waited for her to come back to him, his hands tightly pressed on her hips as if he was afraid she’d slip away some more. Back in his embrace, the pretty raven haired girl took her panties out the way, pulling them to the side, and reached between her legs. She got a hold of the man’s erection and expertly guided him to her entrance.

Of course, Tennessee needed to tease him some more and rubbed the tip of his cock around her hole before she finally lowered herself into him. A quiet and breathy moan slipped through her luscious raspberry lips at the sensation of him entering her body. She placed her hands on Gavin’s strong shoulders and steadied herself, then lifted her hips a little before taking more or of him inside. She had to give herself some time and allow her body to get used to the man’s girth. 

The girl couldn’t tell if it was the side effects of the forced abstinence she went through, the blur around what she remembered of her sexual activities prior to the outbreak, or it the ex-police officer was simply bigger than she expected, but she was sure that any additional centimetres would’ve been too much for her.

Gavin squeezed his fingers on the satin of her delightfully pale skin at the base of her thighs, as she slowly, really slowly slid up and down his shaft, getting used to his presence inside her a bit more. Another, louder moan lasciviously rolled on her tongue and slipped through her parted lips, softly crashing on the man’s cheeks as he suddenly raised his hips, fully entering her in one move. 

Tennessee glared at him, silently reproaching him for his sudden movement. She felt her body squeeze around him at the way he rubbed inside her and the pretty girl leaned forwards again, reuniting their forehead. Her breath got shorter as she sped up the pace, raising and lowering herself on him faster. When the first few beads of sweat appeared on her skin and once her cheeks got all red, Gavin lowered his hands from the young woman’s hips to her rear. From that position, he gradually took control of the young woman’s body and she didn’t even realize it. 

Soon enough, the man was fully commanding the speed and depth at which he thrust into her. Tennessee’s heavy breath turned into loud moans when she felt Gavin moving faster and reaching deeper into her. He huffed and puffed, his half opened eyes suddenly caught sight of the raven haired girl’s breast, temptingly bouncing before him.

Giving her back a little of the control she fought so hard to keep over him, Gavin focused on the hand he ran under the thin cotton of her tank top and lifted it up above the two warm, soft and round pieces of flesh on her chest. In response, Tennessee rose her hands to his hair as he pressed his fingers on her skin, feeling up and fondling her gorgeous body with enthusiasm. She tugged at the silky locks of his chestnut hair between her fingers, moaning louder as a warm sensation started to grow in her stomach. 

The more she felt her partner’s hand on that particularly erogenous area of her chest, the more she moaned. And the more she moaned, the more Gavin felt the urge to thrust harder, reaching deeper into the pretty raven haired girl.

The pink nub on top of the breast he had in his hand had been mocking him since he freed the young woman’s bosom from the tight fabric of her clothes. Pressing his other hand harder on her bottom, closing the gap between them some more, the man pinched her nipple between his thumb and his index finger. 

Tennessee tipped her head back with another sigh of contentment and the warmth in her abdomen grew some more as the first trickles of pleasure rushed into her veins. She gave up on the last bits of control she had and wrapped her arms around Gavin’s neck, completely offering herself to the handsome man she was lucky enough to stumble upon about a month ago. The girl fell onto him, pressing her breast on his chest, and Gavin moved his hand out of the way. He let his palm slid all along Tennessee’s breathtaking curves until it reached the small of her back, his other hand keeping a firm grip on the young woman’s buttocks. 

Without any warnings, the ex-police officer suddenly pressed her down on him. Surprised by the sensation of his length hitting the depths of her body, Tennessee gasped and trembled from the twitches of pleasure now rippling into her entire being. Her inner thighs squeezed on Gavin’s hips as he began to ram harder inside her, his hips crashing against her rear thrust after thrust.

The man drew a few more loud moans out of the pretty girl as her mind was washed away by the intense waves of ecstasy pulsing through her veins. Her moans turned into louder cries of enjoyment and she grasped harder on Gavin’s hair, her release about to drag the young woman into a vortex of colours and exalting sensations.

With one last cry of enjoyment, Tennessee’s body squeezed around him as she reached her climax, her whole body shaking from the intensity of her euphoria. Gritting his teeth, Gavin thrusted even harder into her as he rode the raven haired girl through her orgasm, a low but strong growl filling her ears. 

He finally hit his own release with a few more energetic thrusts into the warmth of her delightful body. The ex-police officer’s semen filled the condom he wore and he tightly wrapped his arms around Tennessee, squeezing her against his chest until the rolling of his hips gradually came to an end.

A hand tangled into his hair and the other resting on the nape of his neck, the gorgeous young woman pressed his head against her bosom. Gavin rested his forehead against her shoulder, his mouth agape and his heavy breath running on Tennessee’s skin, deliciously covered in a thin layer of sweat. 

As he was coming back to himself, the short buzz that filled his ears fading away, the pretty raven haired girl trembled some more against him, the last shivers of pleasure running through her. Even though he was supporting her entire weight, Tennessee felt so light in his arms... So light yet he was ramming so hard into her less than a minute ago. 

Flashbacks of their passionate intercourse came back to his mind like arrows shot through his erratic thoughts. Suddenly afraid he could have hurt the delicate girl in his arms, Gavin looked up at her, forcing her to remove her chin from the top of his head, and pushed her back a little. His ears turned bright red as he searched her beautiful features for any sign of pain, but Tennessee smiled at him , as sharp and cheeky as ever. 

The man tried to lay her back against his chest to enjoy the warmth of her skin a little longer, his fingertips running softly on the small of her back, but the gorgeous raven haired girl frowned and brushed him off. 

She pulled herself away and stood up, putting her tank top back into place. The young woman then picked up her shirt from the ground with quick, feisty movements before she finally looked back at Gavin, placing a fist on her hips as she shifted her weight on the side. 

\- “Having sex doesn’t make us a cutesy dumb couple, you know,” she said with a surprisingly cold and snarky voice.

The ex-police officer kept staring at her, dumbfounded, as Tennessee put her clothes back on, as if nothing ever happened. She was sliding her pretty little feet back into her boots when he finally snapped out of his astonishment. Gavin quickly removed the condom from himself, tying its end into a tight knot, and stood up to pull his pants back on as he discarded the sheet of latex in a nearby trash bin. Old habits die hard. 

However, he was still completely at loss about the girl’s attitude and didn’t know what to think. What in the actual hell was wrong with her? Was this all a game for her? Gavin couldn’t even think about something to say after that. With a long and conflicted sigh, the man lowered his undershirt back in place and pulled his uniform shirt from his arms to his shoulders. He started to button it up, but also kept an eye on that strange girl that stuck by his side despite every bomb she was dropping on him every time they seemed to get closer. It almost felt like she was deliberately forcing him to take a few steps back, keeping him at a safe distance from her, like she needed to stay clear of any form of attachment. 

Tennessee was standing next to the broken storefront, shifting her weight from a foot to the other, gently swaying as she stretched her arms behind her head. The setting sun slowly disappeared from the sky, creating a hypnotizing pattern of lights and shadows over her whole body. Was it already that late? Neither of them realized they were at it the whole afternoon and that the night was about to fall upon them. 

That’s probably why the girl was just standing there. She was looking for a way to secure the place until the morning. Unfortunately, the shelving units wouldn’t be tall enough to completely block the opening this time. However, she couldn’t see it from where she was, but there was a strong metallic mesh hung over the windows they simply needed to pull down to cover the whole front wall.

Gavin walked up to her to reach for the security device and Tennessee suddenly stepped away from him, as if he just bit her or something. He furrowed his brows, perfectly aware of the reasons behind her weird comportment, and spoke in a cold voice he never used with her before. 

\- “You were clear enough about that,” he said.

Not waiting for his partner’s reaction, he pulled the metallic curtain down and tightly locked it in place. The ex-police officer then turned around and went back to his backpack, throwing the bulletproof vest he just picked up from the ground over his shoulder. Once he collected all his stuff, Gavin simply walked away, under the young woman’s curious gaze. 

\- “We can sleep in the director’s office” he told her in a barely warmer tone. “Unless you prefer the aisles scenery,”

With that, he meant he would be sleeping in the office, but she was free to sleep wherever she wanted. If she wanted to see him as a toy she could satisfy herself with, good for her. However, the man wouldn’t let the girl treat him like he was an enamoured idiot. He was obviously not. 

The rest of the evening would quickly go by. They set their things up for the night and ate a quick meal without exchanging a single word. Both the young adults were avoiding each other’s gaze, sitting around the large camping lamp the young woman took out the first night. They were a but more than a meter apart, but the distance between them felt like a thousand light-years. It was far from the complicity they developed when the pretty raven haired girl was looking after him as he recovered from his wound. 

Tennessee was unreachable. Despite the many glances Gavin took her way, she never looked back at him, not even to peek at the myriad of emotions dancing in the gold of his irises. However, the girl perfectly knew they were there and that the ex-police officer was really thoughtful. Unfortunately, she would stay unaffected by his state of mind. It wasn’t the first time she was going through a similar situation after all. 

The young woman had countless “partners” in her life and she got used to keeping clear boundaries. She may seem heartless, but it was better this way. It was keeping them both from the pain the omission of these boundaries could bring in the future. She remained completely silent, her mind clear as rock and her sage green eyes, deprived of any emotion, locked on the light. She would simply stay like that until they would be ready to get some sleep.

For Gavin, it was a bit different. Unlike the pretty raven haired girl by his side, his mind was as unsettled as the ocean on a stormy night. For a long time, he had been asking himself what in hell he was expecting from this. He didn’t have special feelings for the wild young woman, but he wasn’t expecting this level of iciness. He knew their relationship wouldn’t go further than what it was already, having sex together or not. However, the man never thought she would slip out of his arms like that. The only thing he was thinking at that time was to enjoy the warmth and the presence she represented a bit longer. It had been so long since he last held someone in his arms, or savoured the skin of a woman. The last time was... Let’s say it didn’t end up too well, and it was years before the outbreak. 

Besides that, Gavin was simply who he was. Caring and gentle. Even with the absence of feeling between them, he would’ve liked to hold Tennessee a bit longer as they would’ve been catching their breath together. He would’ve liked to let his fingers run from the small of her back to the space between her shoulder blades until the heat from their intercourse had left their bodies. The young man couldn’t simply fuck her heartlessly and leave her right after he emptied his balls. He wasn’t like that. 

Later, the man was wondering what was waiting for him after the events of the afternoon. Tennessee was so unreadable and out of reach, he couldn’t even figure out if she was intending to repeat the experience or stop it there. He would’ve liked to know, but Gavin had to come to terms with this and accept that he would only know in time and place. 

Afterwards, He shortly asked himself what he would like. To go back their old ways or to keep having sex with the pretty raven haired girl? The ex-police officer couldn’t get a clear answer about it. Somehow, he didn’t want to live with Tennessee’s silence and the arbitrary distance she was uselessly putting between them. The girl had nothing to fear about it. If she didn’t want to involve feelings into the equation, he wouldn’t. As simple as that, but he wanted to keep his teammate and the complicity they developed the hard way.

However, he’d be lying if he said he didn’t enjoy himself today. It might’ve been deprived of emotions, but it felt good. So good. Gavin couldn’t stop thinking about how soft her skin was. He couldn’t help but recall the look Tennessee had on her face while her lips were tightly wrapped around his cock nor how good it felt when she pressed it at her entrance and slowly made her way down until he couldn’t resist jerking his hips to be fully into her as soon as possible. It was so warm and tight. So tight he could have swore her gorgeous body was filled up to the brim once he entered her. 

When he got caught into the remembrance of their intercourse, the man felt his body asking for more. However that would probably be devastating if Tennessee found out he popped a boner just then. Sitting on his sleeping bag, Gavin swiftly turned around and slipped into it, hiding his shame under the layers of fabrics. 

\- “You should sleep,” he said in a neutral tone, which was already a great amelioration after the cold voice he addressed her with earlier.

Without further ado, he laid on his side, turning his back to the pretty raven haired girl, ready to sleep or at least pretend to. With a nearly inaudible sigh, Tennessee turned the light off and slipped in her own sleeping bag. That’s how they would sleep that night. Each in their own sleeping bags, as always, but with a “safe” distance between them.   
  



	9. Routines

The next morning, Gavin woke up first, long before the pretty raven haired girl as he always did. Apparently, she wasn’t feeling any shame about revealing her body anymore. Tennessee put all her clothes back the day before, but she was back to only her shirt and skirt once she settled herself for the night. Her leggings and her socks were nicely folded by her boots, aligned on the side of her sleeping bag. Also, at the way she flipped the top layer of the sleeping bag open, the young woman slept really well that night.

Out of habit, the man started to pack as soon as he got up. He was almost done when he felt a hand around his ankle. He looked down and met Tennessee’s sage green gaze, clouded with sleep but as communicative as ever. Gavin was starting to know that look on her face. A spark at the corner of her eyes, the right corner of her mouth slightly curved upwards and the cheeky aura around her: it usually meant he was in for trouble. 

The girl stretched slowly, arching her back and lifting her rear from the ground with her arms extended forward. She was suddenly rivaling with a fine panther specimen in Gavin’s mind with her gracious and feline moves. Tennessee really resembled the wild cat somehow. The smile she gave him added to the predatory look she had. 

\- “What's the hurry?” she said softly, her voice heavy with sleep, “Why don’t you slow down? We could have one more for the road...”

The grin on her pouty, luscious lips left no doubt about what Tennessee meant there. Gavin froze on the spot, astounded. Really? Was she serious? A discrete shade of pink crossed the ex-police officers face. She was shamelessly ignoring him the night before and now she wanted to drag him in for another ride? How many surprises did she have for him? The man was getting used to the girl’s unpredictable demeanor, but he was still taken aback by the way she was fearlessly going for what she wanted and the straightforwardness of her words. Gavin cleared his throat quietly, miraculously keeping a straight face. 

\- “We don’t really have time for this. The sun is already up,” he replied.

The gorgeous young woman frowned and pouted, tugging on his pants insistently. If he thought she’d let him go that easily, Gavin clearly forgot how stubborn that small raven haired girl could be. She rolled on her side, staring right back at him. 

\- “Oh c’mon!” she whined, “Don’t tell me you didn’t enjoy yourself yesterday...”

Once again, Tennessee hit the target right in the middle. The man’s face reddened as he remembered he had the exact same thought the night before. As if it wasn’t enough, she had given her voice a smooth and enticing tone. Her words were punctuated by her sultry and beautifully harmonized inflections. Mermaids weren’t real, but they must’ve been inspired by girl’s like Tennessee. He took a deep breath, chasing his uneasiness away, then sighed as he put a knee down by her side. He quickly recovered a serious face and looked straight into the mischievous young woman’s sage green gaze.

\- “If you need it that much,” he said seriously, “Keep it for toni…!”

Gavin didn’t get to finish speaking. Tennessee reached for his belt and pulled on it, causing the man to lose his balance. He fell onto her but stopped his fall with his hands, flat on the ground on both sides of the girl’s head as she wrapped her legs around his waist. She ran her free hand under his shirt and her fingers sensually traced the lines of his perfectly shaped abs. “Oh? He’s not wearing his uniform shirt yet,” she thought as she noticed the single layer of fabric covering his chest. She pressed herself harder against him. 

As the pretty raven haired girl kept exploring the man’s abdomen, she removed her fingers from his belt and slid her hand up on the sleeping bag, taking a short break at the small of her back before it went all the way up to her partner’s hand. Tennessee then slipped her fingers under his palm, staring right into the gold of Gavin’s irises despite their annoyed expression, and placed something in his hand.

Unable to identify the object the young woman just gave him, the ex-police officer looked at the piece of fabric in the palm of his hand. A bright red flushed his face and ears when he saw what it was. Gavin didn’t notice she had taken her panties off already, but the way the girl winked at him when she read the surprise on his face led him to think she did it prior to the short discussion they had when she woke up. 

The only answer Tennessee got from him was a suspicious look. Was she trying to trick him again? It was possible after all. The pretty raven haired girl was good at making fun of him. Gavin slowly slid his hand down her body, following the gorgeous curves of her waist and hips until he reached the bare skin of her thigh. From there, he went up the other way and slipped under the skirt she was wearing. 

When the pulp of his fingers softly brushed the warm and sensitive skin of her folds, a new flash of red crossed his face and he quickly pulled his hand back to hastily remove the undershirt he was wearing and toss it on the side. As annoying as it was, that girl had a real talent about getting what she wanted. Just like the day before, she found the breach in his defenses and sneakily made her way through it. 

Starting over the band of her skirt, right under the pretty raven haired girl’s navel, Gavin slowly slid the two layers of fabric covering her chest up, revealing the fair skin hidden underneath. As he made his way up, the ex-police officer explored the delicious curves of Tennessee’s body with his tongue. His teeth brushed the soft skin over her ribs and the young woman slightly arched her back, taking in a deep breath. When he met the beginning of her breast, Gavin stood up on his knees and peeled both her shirt and tank top from her skin, the pretty raven haired girl’s legs tightly locked around his waist. 

She was right when she said he enjoyed himself last evening. Good enough for the man to give it another try despite the way things ended up last night. And damn that girl was a piece of art. She must’ve been brought to this world to torture men. Gavin himself had a hard time saying no to such a delightful vision. On top of that, it looked like Tennessee was willing to give him some latitude today, unlike the day before. 

Emboldened by the raven haired girl’s compliance, the ex-police officer even pushed as far as to remove her legs from around his waist and bring them under himself, completely pinning her down. His large hand, the one that wasn’t supporting his weight, got a hold of the young woman’s breast. Gavin’s lips hovered over her collarbone then left a trail of light kisses down between the two soft and warm mounds on her chest. 

The man gave his partner a quick glance, a mischievous light in the gold of his irises. A few strands of his chestnut hair tickled the skin of her neck, drawing a soft chuckle from her. However, when Gavin gently bit on the pink nub at the top of her breast, what came out the pretty raven haired girl’s lips was a muffled moan. His tongue replaced his teeth around the nipple he focused his attention on, swirling around it. As he kept caring for the sensitive bundle of flesh with kisses and bites, the man could feel his excitement growing against her. He took the time to enthusiastically suck on that first nipple, until he was satisfied with its appearance.

Once it was beautifully erected, red and sensitive, the man moved to the next one and provided the same thorough and attentive care, listening to Tennessee’s sighs. He was quite surprised about how compliant she was today, but Gavin was far from complaining. He had more time to get to know the gorgeous body in his arms, especially if he was to have regular intimate encounters with that body. His mind was drifting away as a wave of desire trickled down his veins

The ex-police officer bit a little harder on the pink nub he had in his mouth and Tennessee’s sighs turned into soft moans. The chills running down her spine and the warmth in her stomach formed a shiny film over her folds that quickly pooled between her legs. Her hand in his hair, the other gripping on his shoulder, the pretty raven haired girl pulled on the locks between her fingers with a faint groan. 

\- “Stop fooling around already…” she said lasciviously, locking the green of her eyes with her partner’s breathtaking golden gaze.

Her words didn’t feel like an order, but more like a plea, She was eager to get this a little further. Following the girl’s request, Gavin sat back on his heels and reached for her backpack, placed a few inches behind her head. He knew where she stored what became their condom supplies since Tennessee deliberately waited for him to be looking at her to put them away. It’s when he bent forward a little that she decided to roll over on her stomach and sultrily lifted her rear, pressing herself against his bulge. 

The man ran a hand from the young woman’s shoulder to the swell of her buttock as he sat on his heels again to undo his pants and pull them, along with his boxer briefs, over his fully formed erection. He tore the square foil open while Tennessee kept pressing her rear on him. With a long, impatient growl, Gavin pinched the top of the condom and unrolled it down his shaft. 

The gorgeous young woman kept teasing him until she felt the tip of his erection at her entrance. The ex-police officer entered her slowly, afraid to cause her any pain as a wave of warmth crossed his face at the remembrance of the tightness of her body. However, the pretty raven haired girl lifted her bottom some more, taking him entirely in one move. She repressed her moan, biting her lower lip, but Tennessee couldn’t hold a yelp back when Gavin placed a hand next to hers and the other between her shoulders, pinning her upper body down. 

The girl fought his grip a little, not particularly pleased to find herself in such a submissive position, but the man gave one strong thrust into her and she gave up. From there, she completely offered herself to him. Gavin pulled back, almost entirely then brought his hips back against the young woman’s rear in a slow, gentle motion. He repeated the movement a few times and moved his hand from her shoulders to her hips. Matching his other hand to the first, he placed them the way he wanted, just at the right angle to reach the depths of her warmth. 

The ex-police officer gradually built a rhythm and, as he thrusted harder and faster into her, Tennessee’s moans brought out a wilder side of him, a facet she wasn’t suspecting. The girl’s moans filled his ears and she clenched her fist on the sleeping bag beneath them, the first dribbles of pleasure flowing through them both. Tennessee began to move her hips in time with the man, yearning for more, to feel him reaching the deepest parts of her body.

The way Gavin rubbed inside her, in that new position, felt different. It had something unique, like if he knew exactly how to please her, how to increase the pressure in her stomach at an impressive rhythm. Panting heavily, the pretty young woman turned her face to the side, glancing at her partner from the corner of her eye. A thin layer of sweat was covering his chest, driblets of it running down the enticing lines of his muscles. She would’ve been biting on those abs if she could.

The amber of Gavin’s irises shone into the semi-darkness of the windowless office. A hypnotizing, breathtaking glow gave them the appearance of molten gold, as if there was fire in his eyes. With a low growl, Gavin removed a hand from Tennessee’s hips and turned her face away. However, his hand didn’t return to her waist. The man slid his hand on the swell of her breast, then wrapped his arms around the girl’s upper body, lifting her up against his chest. 

Tennessee lifted her arms, running her hand behind his head to intertwine her fingers with Gavin’s silken hair. Feeling the pleasure in her abdomen turning into the first spasm of her release, the young woman adjusted the movement of her hips to feel Gavin hitting deeper into her, urging him to fuck her even harder. She liked that wild side of the ex-police officer. 

He rammed into her faster, his unrestrained thrusts quickly bringing Tennessee closer to her climax. He cries of ecstasy echoed in the room as the man sent her over the edge in a few more wild thrusts. The pretty girl’s body contracted around him and he gritted his teeth, riding her through her orgasm. Gavin could feel her trembling as he extended the duration of her release.

Reaching his own limit, he fell from his hand to his forearm, closing the gap remaining between their bodies. The man leaned some more onto her back and placed a few gentle bites in the nape of Tennessee’s neck. Gavin’s thrusts became erratic as he firmly grasped her breast and he groaned louder. Finally succumbing to the burst of pleasure into his whole body, Gavin bit on the soft skin in the crook of the young woman’s neck and filled the condom he wore with his seed. 

Tennessee gasped in surprise as a last growl slipped through the ex-police officer’s lips, muffled by the girl’s skin between his teeth. His thrusts quickly slowed down then stopped completely. He leaned on the pretty raven haired girl and rested his head on her shoulder. Gavin’s heavy breath lingered on Tennessee’s skin, sending a shiver down her spine. 

The buzzing sensation left behind by her orgasm gradually faded away. Feeling the man’s weight over her body, Tennessee thought about telling him to fuck off for a second, but a twitch of his softening cock still inside her wiped her mind and she ended up saying something completely different in the end:

\- “Mhmm, wow…” she whispered.

Catching his breath, Gavin couldn’t repress a soft chuckle when he heard the girl’s unexpected words. He pulled out and rolled on the side. Resting on his back, the ex-police officer carefully removed the condom and pulled his pants and briefs back in place. 

The sheet of latex properly discarded and his pants buttoned up, Gavin closed his eyes for a moment and listened to his own heartbeat as it gradually slowed down. He was happy to be able to enjoy the moment a little longer, even though he couldn’t hold the girl laying by his side. It seemed like the pretty, but quite demanding young woman had the same idea. She didn’t move either, resting on her stomach with her arms crossed under her head. 

After a while, Tennessee slowly rolled on her side, still recovering from the kick of euphoria her orgasm unleashed in her entire body. She was almost falling asleep again, but a satisfied smile hovered on her lips. It was Gavin’s voice that pulled her out of her ecstatic bubble.

\- “Happy?” 

\- “Hmm… fuck yeah,” she replied.

\- “Then dress up,” he said with an imperative tone, despite the softness in his voice, “We gotta go now.”

As he stopped speaking, Gavin gently threw the girl’s shirts at her. Tennessee took a long, deep breath in, then rolled onto her back, a hand wisely placed over her breast. 

\- You’re such a downer…” she chuckled, unable to keep up with the fake complaining tone she tried to use.

The young woman stretched then reached for her shirt Gavin nicely “placed” by her side. She sat up and the ex-police officer noticed a red mark on her skin, right where the neck connects with the shoulder. He pushed himself up on his elbow to give it a better look and a new flash of red crossed his face. It was a perfectly neat bite mark, slowly going from red to a purplish shade of blue. 

Gavin could already hear the vehement string of expletives the girl would break into when she would notice. Tennessee stood on her knees, lowering her skirt on her thighs and putting her tank top back on as the man silently stared at her shoulder like a deer in the headlights, trying to figure out if he should tell her about the bite mark or not. 

The young woman stood up to recover the rest of her garments and put her t-shirt back over her top when she noticed Gavin’s terrified expression. She turned around, her arms into the shirt’s sleeves but not quite wearing it yet. 

\- “What?” she asked, “Sex fried your brain already?”

\- “N-Nothing,” he replied, his ears reddening.

Tennessee looked at him suspiciously for a while, thinking about how he stared at her back. It’s only then that she started to feel the sting on her shoulder. She immediately threw her shirt on the ground and turned around to catch the reflection of her back in the tall mirror hung to the wall behind her. Completely stunned, the pretty raven haired girl exhaustively observed the mark, running a finger on the outline of the indentation. As if something snapped into her mind, she quickly turned around to face the man behind her, an angry pout on her pretty lips. 

\- “Are you fucking serious?!” she snarled, glaring at him, “Feeling the need to mark your territory already!?”

The young woman was obviously pretty unhappy about it, but the ex-police officer didn’t leave that mark on purpose. He simply got lost in the moment a little earlier. However, any tentative to justify himself would probably make Tennessee angrier. Gavin shrugged his shoulders, out of any better ideas to ease the tensions. Tennessee let out a loud exclamation of anger then turned away as she put her shirt on. She kept moving around angrily, packing her stuff after she put the rest of her clothes on while the poor man did his best to stay out of her way. They were soon ready to leave, Both fully dressed up and their backpacks tightly closed, the pretty raven haired girl didn’t even wait for Gavin to walk out the door.

\---- ---- ---- ----

They had been walking for a few hours and the sun was now high up in the sky. On many occasions and at various times, Gavin tried to initiate a conversation with the young woman by his side, to no avail. The only answers he got were mechanical, barely a few words at the time. Tennessee brushed off every question he asked and didn’t seem to be listening when he opted for the opposite tactic and simply told her about a few funny cases he worked on through his career. Most, maybe all the stories he told her were related to his work as a police-officer, not as a STF agent. There was nothing funny about the STF… 

Despite all his efforts, half the day had gone by and he didn’t know anything new about the girl. It’s not like if he knew anything to begin with. They had spent a whole month together by now and the ex-police officer didn’t even know what she was doing before the outbreak, beside singing in a band, nor what city she lived in. It was nearly nothing when they spent that much time together. Concretely, Gavin didn’t even know her real name! 

It was almost time for them to put their backpacks down for a while and take a break, preferably eating something too, when Tennessee turned around and locked her vivid sage green eyes, sparkling with annoyance, with the gold of the man’s amber gaze. 

\- “Do you always have to chatter so much, Gabby?” she said in a mocking voice.

Gavin stopped walking and cocked an eyebrow, staring right back at the girl. He hoped the unapproachable raven haired girl would agree to give their relationship a friendlier turn now that they were…. Ahem, closer, but apparently he had been wrong. Tennessee was keeping every wall around her up high and putting every brick back in place as soon as he would take one off. With a discrete sigh, his shoulders falling down a little, Gavin replied:

\- “I just thought it would be nice to talk, Nessie,” he said as he resumed walking, passing by the girl without giving her a single look.

A split second later, the man heard a faint thud behind him. When he looked over his shoulder, he saw that Tennessee had dropped her backpack on the ground, by her feet, and crossed her arms over her chest. A discrete shade of pink crossed her face from a cheek to the other, but her radiant aventurine eyes flashed with anger. The pretty girl clenched her teeth, obviously disapproving the use of that new nickname Gavin gave her. 

However, even though he perfectly noticed the young woman’s displeasure, the ex-police officer also noticed the blush on her face. It was giving her beautiful features an utterly different look. “It’s cute… well, she’s kinda cute,” Gavin thought at that moment. He was about to call her Nessie again, just to see her cheeks growing pink again, but he decided to keep that for later.

\- “Hungry already?” he said instead.

Half a smile, unusually cheeky, floated on the man’s lips, Tennessee grunted and looked away, blushing some more when she saw the spark of complicity in the molten gold of his irises. Gavin chuckled and walked back to her, gently placing his own backpack by her side. It was about time for lunch. They would’ve stopped sooner or later anyway.

\---- ---- ---- ----

A little more than three days later, the duo was still restlessly walking into the wild. The two young adults shared the space under Tennessee’s tarp, but never their sleeping bag. Since they left the market where they last stopped for supplies, the pretty raven haired girl never initiated or requested any “intimate” moment and Gavin wasn’t exactly there yet. This situation was all new and he wasn’t sure about what to do. Sometimes, traveling with Tennessee felt like working for the bomb squad.

Their path led them on different country roads and a few secluded farms, but it never went through any town or village, not even small suburbs. This part of the country was mostly covered in woodlands, slowing down their progression and tiring them down faster. As if it wasn’t enough, temperatures were dropping. The nights were cold already, but now they were freezing cold. Without any constructions to shelter in or a real camping tent, adapted for cold weather, it was hard to get a good night of sleep. The winter wind would wake them up as soon as the fire would be weakening, even just a little.

Despite his exhaustion, Gavin was equal to himself. He kept a steady pace and a positive mind. He never showed any signs of weakness nor complained about anything. Unfortunately, it wasn’t exactly the same for Tennessee. As the days were gradually tiring her out, a little more every day, the young woman was having some extreme mood swings… and those mood swings mostly consisted of suddenly getting angry for absolutely anything along with her usual bad mood. The slightest source of annoyance would make her really upset. 

She was already quite upset that morning when she woke up with a thin layer of frost covering her hair. So, when a broken tree branch sticking up from the ground tore her leggings open, from the front to the back of her thigh, the pretty raven haired girl suddenly became quite unpleasant. Between her constant sighs and snide remarks, she would also complain every once in a while. The exposed skin of her thigh was getting red from the cold and the light cut the branch left only hurt more. 

In the early middle of the afternoon, Gavin was already looking for a better shelter than what the tarp would offer. Even though she never told him about the cut, he easily noticed how hard it became for the girl to keep walking through the woods and its uneven ground. Unfortunately, the freezing wind dried up Tennessee’s skin and caused her wound to reopen every time it was about to coagulate, widening and deepening the cut each time. 

When she felt a warm and sticky moisture gushing down her leg, the young woman couldn’t repress a loud “Shit”. Gavin immediately turned around and realized how badly the girl’s cut worsened. He quickly walked up to her and knelt down, circling Tennessee’s thigh with his finger as he examined the wound. The way his thumbs gently pressed on her skin didn’t hurt despite the sensitivity of her skin. 

When he removed his hands from her thigh, the pretty raven haired girl felt a chill running down her spine, as if all warmth had left her body. Gavin pulled his backpack in front of him and placed it on the ground to search for one of their last rolls of gauze. His own wound almost completely depleted their stock. The man carefully wrapped it around the young woman’s thigh, a deeply focused look on his face. Once done, he softly brushed his thumb over the bandage one last time. Satisfied, he zipped up his backpack and stood up. 

\- “We should look for a place where you could rest a little,” he said, looking straight into her eyes.

\- “No shit, Doc,” Tennessee growled between her teeth.

They resumed walking, but Gavin matched his pace to the girl’s. He would often take a few glances at her to make sure she was doing alright, but remained as discreet as possible. If she caught him looking out for her, she would make a fuss about how she can handle herself alone, how she was strong enough to keep going, and how he shouldn’t be treating her like a fragile little thing. Even though he could predict her speech, the ex-police officer knew how tired she was. That energy she’d be burning to yell at him would be needed if they weren’t able to find a shelter soon. 

After maybe an hour, Gavin’s voice pulled the young woman out of the deep state of concentration she had fallen into. Her thigh hurt enough to make her trip if she wasn’t paying attention to her every move. 

\- “Nessie? How are you doing?” he asked without slowing down.

As he looked at her from over his shoulder, Tennessee’s face turned so red the man feared she actually had a fever for a split second and he stopped right into his tracks. Thankfully, it wasn’t the case. Gavin quickly realized that she was blushing. She stopped right by his side and weakly punched him on the shoulder. That’s how tired she was, even though she would never admit it. 

\- “Don’t you dare call me ‘Nessie’ again,” she scowled, glaring at him.

\- “You can keep running…Nessie,” the man chuckled back at her.

With a new displeased grunt, Tennessee pushed him forward a little to urge him to resume their walk. They kept progressing for maybe another hour and a half before a small wooden construction entered their sight, breathing new life into the two young adults.

It was a small cabin, entirely made of wood, except for the chimney they could see on the roof. That detail, a promise of warmth, put a smile on their faces. There was probably a room or two in there, but both Tennessee and Gavin would agree to sleep in a closet if it meant they could stay warm and have a good night of sleep.

The duo unconsciously started to walk faster and they quickly reached the cabin. Tennessee skipped her usual examination, leaving the task to Gavin while she sat at the bottom of the stairs leading to the cabin’s porch. The man drew a circle around the small construction, even though he was quite certain there wouldn’t be anything here. They were in the middle of nowhere, with nothing around but trees for miles and miles. Meeting mutants here was very unlikely. If there was a presence here, it would be human, but the absence of smoke coming from the chimney told him that was probably not the case either. 

The ex-police officer met his partner by the wooden stairs and helped her to get up. Her leg felt numb and it was obviously starting to bother her more than she could bear. He held the pretty raven haired girl by her arm as they climbed up the half-dozen steps facing the cabin’s door. Gavin easily opened the unlocked door and let the young woman in first, following soon after. As he thought, their shelter had only one room, but it provided more comfort than what they had in weeks.

The room was large enough not to feel pressed between the rudimentary furniture but there was no empty space either. The young adults were happy to see a wood-burning stove centered on the wall, covered in bricks, that faced the door. A short counter on the left wall, a round table with tree chairs and a couch two steps away from the doorway was all there was in the room, beside the stack of fire logs aligned on the right wall. It was probably nothing more than a hunting camp, but it felt like a five star hotel for them.

The door wasn’t even quite closed that the duo was standing by the stove. Everything was placed like it the owner left at the end of the weekend and planned to be back for the next one. Unfortunately, the outbreak happened.

Many people fled cities and towns for their country houses or any kind of remote shelter they had, like this cabin, to avoid the contamination. Seems like the owner of this one never made it there. Unfortunately, even those who ran away died or mutated. No one escaped the virus. Only Evolvers survived the First phase and only those with natural immunity like Gavin and Tennessee avoided the mutations. The only exception resided in the people that miraculously managed to hide into bunkers early enough to survive what would’ve been referred to as “The End of The World” in History books… if there were still History books to write. 

With the wood piled against the wall on their right, Gavin lit a fire while the pretty raven haired limped her way to the couch. As her partner busied himself with their installation, Tennessee slowly removed the gauze bandage around her thigh, then stripped from her socks and leggings, allowing herself more room to attend her wound. It was really unlucky that the branch hit her right between the hem of her skirt and the beginning of her sock. A long sigh slipped through her pretty luscious lips and the girl proceeded to take care of her injury. 

It was nearly nothing in the beginning, but the walk and the cold made it bad enough to be troublesome if she wasn’t careful from now on. The gorgeous young woman delicately cleaned her wound, glad it wasn’t bleeding anymore. She wouldn’t need to dress it right back. Once he was done with the fire, Gavin walked back to her, dropping his backpack next to the couch as he knelt by the pretty raven haired girl. 

\- “How is it?” he asked as he rubbed his hands together, warming them before examining the cut.

\- “Not as bad as I thought, thankfully, but annoying as fuck,” Tennessee answered, shivering despite the warmth of the man’s hands on her skin.

She had a tired look on her face. The lovely skin of her long, slender and perfectly shaped legs were now covered in goosebumps. Gritting her teeth, Tennessee put her socks back on, but left her torn open leggings on the side. She then wrapped her arms around herself, waiting for the fire to warm the room. As he sat by her side on the couch, Gavin took their meal out of his backpack. Since they passed by the food market, the young adults had a satisfying variety of canned meals, but they also had a few other treats, like beef jerky and other long lasting snacks. 

As much as she hated everything about jerky back when civilization still meant something, the young woman grew to like the dried meat’s strong flavor and leathery texture. However, her partner had a surprise for her. Putting down the different elements of the night’s meal between them on the couch, Gavin nonchalantly placed a small foil package next to her. Her attention immediately drawn by the sudden proximity, Tennessee looked down at the object he placed against her. Her vibrant sage aventurine eyes opened wide as she picked the bag with enthusiasm.

\- “Where did you find that!?? she said, trying to hide the pleased tone of her voice

\- “I found them in the rest area we searched in the morning,” Gavin replied with a smile on his face and a spark of amusement in the gold of his irises.

\- “You took them for me?”

\- “Well, I remembered you had some the night we met and that you would pick some up every time you’d come by one so… I just picked them up while you were too busy being grumpy to notice them,” the ex-police officer answered as the smile on his lips widened.

\- “Oh shut up! Tennessee said, turning her upper body away from him as she pressed the small bag on her chest, falsely offended, “You’re exaggerating again.”

Gavin chuckled softly, but didn’t add anything. He simply picked up a little of all the different food items he pulled out of his backpack and went to sit at the nearby table. However, the man kept his golden gaze on the pretty raven haired girl on the couch. Even though the expression on her face seemed cold and stern, as if didn’t please her one bit, Tennessee opened the bag of salted crackers and immediately put one in her mouth. She never told him, but it was her favorite snack, even before the outbreak. She found some here and there along the past year, but it was rare enough for her to miss the taste of it most of the time. But somehow, Gavin noticed and remembered that little detail about her. Probably some unconscious remembrance of his police officer’s skills. He was even caring enough to pick them for her! If she wasn’t tightly locked away behind the ice of her emotional fortress, the gorgeous young woman almost could’ve felt a little warmth deep down her heart, thinking about how the handsome man by her side was always so nice and taking good care of her. 

They both ate in silence after that, but they were in such a peaceful state of mind it didn’t even matter. Tennessee was on cloud nine with her favorite snack, and Gavin couldn’t help but melt a little when he saw the smile she unconsciously had on her face the whole time. She didn’t exactly thank him, but that hint of happiness lighting up her beautiful features was more than enough for him. Gavin’s greatest reward had always been the smile on the faces of those he cherished. 

\---- ---- ---- ----

Later that night, hours after they went to sleep, the fire was slowly dying. It was down to embers and, with the cabin’s poor insulation and the freezing temperature outside, the heat previously generated gradually faded away. At least, they were still protected from the wind, which was a great improvement already. 

It was quite hot in the small cabin earlier and Tennessee only wore her panties and tank top to sleep. Unlike the way she slept usually, quiet and immobile, the girl had been squirming a lot. She wriggled and twisted so much that she somehow got her sleeping bag completely open and stuck one of her beautiful legs out. 

She was discretely trembling, goosebumps covering her entire skin, when Gavin randomly woke up, by sheer luck. He slowly opened his eyes, his mind still clouded with sleep, but the man immediately knew the girl was cold. He sat up and reached for the girl’s woolen vest, thrown over the nearby chair’s backrest with her coat. She was a bit more than a foot and a half away from him, so he didn’t even need to get up to slowly and delicately place her bare leg back in her sleeping bag. Gavin zipped it back up to the young woman’s waist and gently placed the warm vest over her. He laid back into his own sleeping bag and scooted over a little, pressing his back against the raven haired girl. 

They had cuddled for warmth in the past, but Tennessee was the one who initiated it. The ex-police officer knew by now that snuggling in her back without permission was exposing himself to be strongly elbowed right in the ribs if he was found taking the initiative, whether it was for warmth or not. However, less than a minute later, the pretty girl’s voice softly rose behind him. 

\- “You know what… There’s better ways to warm me up, darling,” she said.

Surprised, but not startled. Gavin felt her moving behind him. He turned around and met Tennessee’s gorgeous sage green gaze. Their noses were almost touching already, but the young woman flipped her sleeping bag open and wormed her way into his. Rolling on his back, the man wrapped his arms around her shoulders as she snuggled up against him. The pretty raven haired girl rested her hand on his chest and wrapped one of her legs around his. 

They stayed like that for a moment, leading Gavin to think her alluring repartee was only another way to tease him and make fun about how he would get all flustered. But he did not, and Tennessee didn’t add anything. The ex-police officer was about to fall asleep again, the young woman’s alluring body tightly pressed against him, when the hand on his chest slowly ran down his abdomen to fiddle with the hem of his shirt.

The man didn’t move, even when the pulp of Tennessee’s fingers on his stomach filled his mind with thoughts he would never share with anyone. The girl slipped her hand under his shirt, running her fingers on his skin without an ounce of shame. As if her intentions weren’t clear enough already, she lasciviously brushed his abs as her hand went all the way down to his crotch. Gavin’s excitement was already palpable through his pants and it kept growing under the hand caressing his bulge. 

However, Tennessee was far from being patient and she wouldn’t keep this kind of early preliminaries on forever without at least getting a glimpse of the man’s desire for her, beside his growing erection of course. She had that impatient vibe, a wildness that always turned her into a raging fire of passion in a blink. With only the hand she slipped in the warmth of the sleeping bag, the pretty raven haired girl undid Gavin’s pants and traced a line along the band of his boxer briefs with the tip of her fingers. 

It didn’t last very long. Only a few seconds later, the pretty young woman slid her hand under the waistband of the underwear, reaching for the ex-police officer’s hardening cock and delicately wrapped her fingers at its base. She gave him a few slow strokes as she brushed her parted lips on the sensitive skin of his neck. Shivers ran down Gavin’s spine, the girl’s breath lingering on his skin, and he got a hold of the forearm she rested on his stomach. 

Tennessee’s hand was going up and down his shaft at a slow, steady but oh-so-sexy rhythm. The man’s breath accelerated and the corners of her mouth turned upward. Once the cock she had in hand was fully erected, the raven haired girl let go of him and pulled the band of his brief down, freeing his excitement from its uncomfortable confinement.

She opened the sleeping bag they were in completely to give them more space and dissipate the heat their bodies generated before it became unpleasant. Tennessee threw her leg over his hips, straddling her favorite new “victim”. The only thing separating her from Gavin’s rock hard erection was the thin cotton of her panties. The young woman sultrily rocked her hips on him, both her hands impatiently running up his chest to take his shirt off. After he got rid of it, Gavin’s hands rested on her thighs on both sides of him, and gently explored the curves of her buttocks, slipping the tip of his fingers under the seam of her underwear. 

Pressing Tennessee’s body harder on him, the man followed the movement of her hips. The girl could feel her own excitement inundating her folds, quickly getting through the fabric of her underwear. She leaned forward and, that seductive but predatory smile of hers on her enticing raspberry lips, left a light kiss on the tip of the ex-police officer’s nose as she reached a little further for her backpack. Gavin grunted quietly when her rear left his hips and pressed his fingers harder on the soft flesh of her thighs. The amber of his irises was burning, giving his gaze the appearance of molten gold as his arousal rushed through his veins. He was kind of growing to like their regular “sessions”. He enjoyed playing with fire, especially when that fire was as sexy and unpredictable as Tennessee. It was addictive. 

When her beautiful face reappeared above his, the raven haired girl had a recognizable foil square gently tucked between her beguiling lips, lips she always made a point to keep as far as possible from his. Kissing wasn’t included in their agreement. Gavin sighed impatiently and the young woman took a hold of his hand on her thigh and slid it all the way up her body in a long, slow and sensual caress. She pressed his hand on her breast then placed the foil in the palm of his hand, closing his fingers on it, signifying him quite clearly he was in charge to put the condom on this time. 

As he unrolled it on his shaft, Tennessee took the opportunity to get rid of her top, throwing it to the side with a flick of her wrist. In a desirous move, the ex-police officer reached for the soft mound on her chest, fully exposed to his sight, and pressed his fingers around it with a hunger he didn’t know he had. The girl let a luscious sigh out then lifted her hips, allowing her partner to pull her panties on the side and line himself with her hole. 

Felling the tip of Gavin’s sliding into her entrance, the pretty raven haired girl lowered herself into him, taking the time to enjoy every inch she was taking in. The man’s hands grasping on her hips, she began to slowly slide up and down his erection, still needing some time to get used to his presence inside her. Steady on her knees, Tennessee didn’t need her hands to keep her balance and ravenously caressed Gavin’s abdomen and chest. She let out a quiet moan as she raised and lowered herself on his cock. 

She closed her beautifully sparkling eyes and placed a hand over the one the man rested on her hips, lacing her fingers with his as she slid it up her chest again. The young woman brought it back to her bosom and squeezed his fingers around the soft, round and warm flesh of her chest, urging Gavin to report his attention on that sensitive area of her body. He groaned and held her hip tighter, hoping to guide her rhythm toward a faster pace. 

Tennessee searched for the right way to shift her weight for a few seconds, then bounced on him faster, a new moan slipping through her lips. She tipped her head back, her free hand moving from the man’s stomach to his thigh for better support, as she finally found the right pace to please both herself and her partner. Gavin tried to sit up, hungry for the taste of the girl’s skin since he wasn’t allowed to kiss her lips, but the hand on his thigh quickly came back to his chest and the pretty raven haired girl pushed him back down. He let out a displeased groan as he squeezed her breast tighter, raising his hips in time with her to reach deeper into her warmth. 

The young woman was now panting heavily, feeling the heat between her legs turning into pressure in her lower abdomen as the first wave of pleasure bubbled into her body. She leaned back a little more, increasing the sensation of Gavin’s cock rubbing inside her, and let go of the hand around her breast. He kept fondling and stroking her erected nipple with his thumb until he could feel Tennessee’s mind faltering, disappearing into the midst of passion. 

Gavin then moved his hand down to her waist, following the gorgeous curves of her body. The tip of his fingers lightly brushed the skin below her bellybutton and made their way down to Tennessee’s panties. He slipped his thumb between the fabric and her body, rolling it over her folds until he finally found the object of his interest as it drew a loud moan from the wild girl above him. The man kept rubbing his thumb over her clit as louder cries of pleasure erupted from the young woman’s throat. He pushed her closer to her release and, even though he couldn’t see her face, the way she clenched her teeth and arched her back told him it wasn’t that far. As her orgasm was getting close, Tennessee’s will faltered and the ex-police officer, always attentive to the slightest reaction of her body, easily noticed.

Gavin quickly shifted position, rolling on his side with the girl to get on top of her. Without so much as a second for her to realize the position change, he crashed his hips into hers, sending jolts of pleasure through her entire body. Now gripping on the inside of Tennessee’s thighs, the man kept up the wild rhythm she had set earlier, thrusting hard into her until he felt her body contracting around him. 

A rush of ecstasy exploded and pulsed through her as she grasped on her partner’s forearms. Her trembling body tightening on him, Gavin was riding her through her climax but felt his own release closing in. A low growl slipped through his parted lips, his fingers applying an uneven pressure on her thighs. Another orgasm bubbled up and bursted into Tennessee’s body, filling the ex-police officer’s ears with her cries of euphoria.

Through the sweat-slick hair falling before his golden eyes, Gavin looked up at the girl’s face only to find out she turned her head on the side and bit on her own hand in a vain attempt to hide her enjoyment. A little upset as he realized he couldn’t catch a glimpse of the so strong, unfaltering Tennessee as she was getting off, he slammed his hips harder into her. With every new thrust into her, the man pushed himself closer to his own release. By coincidence, the young woman’s body shuddered around him and she lost her grip on her hand, a loud whine coming out of her as she climaxed once more, twitching around his girth and dragging him with her into swirls of ecstasy. 

Gavin groaned and fell forward, stopping his fall with a hand on the ground as he filled the condom he wore with his hot seed. He placed a light kiss on her forehead, then rolled on his back, bringing the gorgeous young woman along with him. Tennessee rested on his broad and sturdy chest, completely out of breath. She was still so out of it she never realized that Gavin had wrapped his arm around her waist and placed his other hand between her shoulders. Her head on the man’s chest, she listened to his frantic heartbeat, ignoring her own heart pounding through her whole body. 

The pretty raven haired girl fluttered her eyes open and looked up at him, but all she could see was his sharp jawline and chin. She laid her head back on his chest, slowly realizing how she completely lost control of the situation and herself. Tennessee then took a deep breath, and her body relaxed into him further. 

\- “I hate you...” she let out in a satisfied sigh.

Despite the meaning of her words, the softness and the hint of contentment in her voice told Gavin it was a bit more complicated than it sounded. He knew, somehow, she was blaming him about how she couldn’t call the shots this time. He chuckled quietly, holding her a bit tighter against him for a second, then slid the hand between her shoulders up behind her head in a spontaneous moment of tenderness.

Tennessee didn’t seem to object, which was quite surprising. Gavin figured he should simply enjoy the moment, pretty sure it wouldn’t be happening anytime soon after that. The raven haired girl had been extremely clear about it. Even though he had no specific feelings for her, the ex-police officer had a more… human way to address his post-coital routine. If she was agreeing to his vision from time to time, like she seemed to right now. why not? He wouldn’t ask for more. He would be pretty happy with it in fact. 

The man stayed just like that, holding the untameable young woman in his arms, until a cold breeze brushed their skins. However, when he wanted to part from her and let her go back to sleep, Gavin realized the girl was sound asleep. He froze for a split second, processing the information. Despite the way she manifested her opposition to any kind of unessential contacts outside their sexual encounters, she fell asleep in his arms, laying on top of him, just like that. 

A gentle sneer growing on his face, Gavin tried to lay her by his side but Tennessee whined in her sleep and tightened the grip of her hand on his shoulder, drawing another soft chuckle from the man. This situation was quite unexpected. There was even something comic about it. Moving carefully, trying his best not to wake the pretty raven haired girl, the ex-police officer removed the condom from himself and tied a knot into it. Despite the fact that he wouldn’t be able to discard it right away, the mess had been avoided. 

With Tennessee sleeping on top of him, it wasn’t exactly easy. Gavin still managed to pull his pants back on without waking her up. He covered himself and the young woman with the top half of his sleeping bag, the man wrapped his arms back around her, enjoying her warmth as he ran a hand through the waterfall of raven hair her ponytail kept together from time to time. Gavin slowly fell asleep, lulled into slumber by the girl’s steady breath and the feeling of her heart beating against his chest. 

  
  



	10. "If you stumble, make it part of the dance" - Author Unknown

A ray of light darting through his eyelids woke Gavin up in the morning. He was about to stretch like he did every morning when he became aware of the weight on his chest. Remembering Tennessee fell asleep in his arms, he stopped moving. The girl was still straddling him, laying on his chest, exactly the way she was the night before. He just lowered his hands from her back to her thighs on both sides of his hips. Her hand on his shoulder twitched slightly then moved to his neck in what would’ve been a tender caress if she had been conscious. 

Gavin sighed with contentment and let his mind drift away since getting up wasn’t exactly an option right now. He was about to fall asleep again when he was roughly brought back to reality.

\- “What the fuck dude!? Tennessee yelled at him, pushing herself away from him hastily.

She was about to move away when the man pressed his hands on her thighs, keeping her in place. It was still a bit dark in the cabin, a single window letting light in, but the pretty raven haired girl could still see his blazing eyes. Those eyes... Tennessee immediately lost herself into the gold of the ex-police officer. He wasn’t blushing at all. His expression was composed and confident. She was baffled by the unexpected calm Gavin showed at the moment, but the green of her eyes was still vibrant from her anger and displeasure. However, her partner didn’t let her the opportunity to go away and spoke in a steady and quiet voice. 

\- “You were laying on me. I didn’t want to wake you up.”

Tennessee cocked a brow and crossed her arms over her naked breasts. Where was her god damn shirt when she was needing it? She remained still for a second where Gavin couldn’t figure out what she was thinking, the light flickering in her irises making them unreadable. 

\- “Damn right, you don’t wake me up!” she scorned.

The man let go of her thighs, lifting his hands on both sides of his head, like if he was under arrest and turning himself in. Anyone looking at him right now could've read the expression on his face, but Tennessee...Tennessee simply occulted it, even though it was pretty simple. His eyes were screaming 'What was I supposed to do then?' However, knowing he couldn't win Gavin didn't add anything and simply let the raven haired girl get off of him.

Even though she was still only wearing her panties, she didn't rush herself to find her tank top and put it back on. She was obviously not concerned about exposing her, albeit splendid, breasts to his sight.

Gavin looked away, slightly blushing, and avoided looking her way until he heard the rustles of the girl's clothes as she put them back on. He put his own shirt on, leaving his bulletproof vest by the door, and busied himself with the packing. Tennessee was putting her boots on when he clipped his sleeping bag to his backpack. They would soon be ready to leave and progress towards their goal.

\---- ---- ---- ---- 

The night after was even colder, and the two young people had reached their limits. Even huddling together wasn't enough anymore. They needed warmer clothes as soon as possible. Thankfully, when they looked up the map in the morning, they noticed there was a small town half a day away from where they were. If they wanted to get more suitable clothes and supplies for the upcoming winter, it was now or never.

Towns and cities would be rarer for a while, according to the map. It was the last bit of civilization before entering a large woodland they would probably need a week or two to go through. The decision wasn't hard to make. It would send them off their initial path a little, but it was a small inconvenience compared to what continuing without the proper equipment would be.

They took the road that would lead them to that small town on a mountainside, where the economy was probably revolving around the location of the small cottages they could see in the distance and outdoors activities, back when the economy actually meant something.

The duo reached the outskirts of the town in the middle of the afternoon. It was a dark, cold, and cloudy day, but at least it wasn't raining. Rain, or even snow, would've been close to a death sentence for them. Thankfully, they were about to update their attire.

Despite the short, uncomfortable night they had, Gavin and Tennessee had to make sure to stay alert as they were progressing through the empty streets. They saw it before. Mutants liked to hang around developed areas. Even though he doubted they would be encountering mutants in such a remote and secluded place, Gavin wasn't planning to take any risks, especially since the pretty raven haired girl was tagging along. When he was roaming these streets alone, the man would cut himself some slack about security measures from time to time. But now that someone else’s safety was depending on him somehow -because Tennessee would never rely on him- unnecessary risks were out of the question.

They finally reached the downtown part of the village-like agglomeration where small stores were lined up. The duo started to consider their options when the perfect place appeared before them: a store selling outdoor clothes and sports equipment meant for every season and weather. Like many other places that were closed at the beginning of the outbreak, everything seemed undisturbed and tightly locked. Without the raven haired girl's talent for lock picking, their only other option would've been to break a window, which was not exactly the safest option. First, noise could draw nearby mutants to them, since now any sound would be endlessly reverberating in the air, reaching distances they would never have before.

Also, a broken window would create a breach in their defenses they could never fill as efficiently as if it wasn't broken. Tennessee's skill was then even more enjoyable. The store lock was way easier to pick than the CDC’s was, and the young adults were soon walking through the glass doors and entering the store. They walked through the hall and register lanes then passed a section presenting canoes and all the accessories the kayakers would need. An open staircase led them to a second-floor where they found camping, winter clothes, and other winter sports equipment.

The raven haired girl dropped her backpack first, along with her woolen jacket and field coat that she wouldn't need anymore since she was here to find something more appropriate for the months to come. Gavin did the same and walked toward the men's section. He wasn't really planning to change anything since almost every piece of clothes he was wearing had a specific purpose. However, he ended up switching his undershirt for one of those isothermal long-sleeved shirts and his uniform shirt for a warm woolen shirt he could wear under his bulletproof vest. He was surprised to find pants similar to the ones he was wearing, both in materials and look, but it would be a great change since he was still wearing the pants Tennessee mended after the blob mutant made a significant hole in them. In the end, he changed everything.

He also replaced his uniform's boots with a similar model made for winter and took the opportunity to gather a small supply of warmer underwear and socks. The man was lacing his new boots, sitting on the last step of the staircase they climbed up earlier, when he looked back the way Tennessee went. The girl was standing by the changing rooms, facing a tall mirror on the wall. She was lowering a sports bra over her breast, providing better support, and presenting a... sexier style with the fishnets on the cleavage. She had also switched her torn and ripped out burgundy leggings for a purple isothermal pair, just like her partner’s shirt. The satin glow on the piece of clothing was highlighting the delightful lines of her legs. The bra and leggings were all she was wearing for now, but her boots were nicely placed nearby, ready to be put on again. Realizing he was looking at her as she changed, Gavin blushed and looked away, but not before the pretty girl caught the reflection of his golden gaze in the glass.

A naughty smile appeared on her face and she walked up to him with her usual cat-like moves. Feeling the young woman closing in, Gavin walked back into the men's section like he didn't know she was coming, But that was just like teasing the cat. She kneeled by her backpack and reached for the pocket she stored the condoms in. She picked one, hid it in her new bra, and disappeared in the many rows of woman clothing to complete her outfits. The ex-police officer came back to their backpack a few minutes later, only to receive a light, unknown projectile behind his head. He looked on the ground behind him and discovered the familiar square foil Tennessee apparently threw at him. Gavin squatted, picked it up from the ground, and lifted his head, discovering the pretty raven haired girl standing a few steps away from him. She wasn't wearing more clothes than she was earlier, and the look on her face was unambiguous. However, when he stood up and walked up to him, Gavin handed the condom back to her as she raised a brow out of curiosity.

\- "I... I have to pay attention to our surroundings," he stammered, his face and ears growing redder, "We're in town, we could be..."

Seeing the look on Tennessee's face, the man knew right away she wasn't buying it, even though it was partially the truth. She stood still as Gavin walked back to their belongings to put away a few more practical things in his backpack. As soon as he squatted by their backpacks, he was immediately pulled back and lost his balance.

Sitting on the ground, dumbfounded, Gavin didn’t even have the time to realize what was happening that the gorgeous young woman appeared on his lap, straddling hips like she did so many times already. She had taken her new pair of leggings off and was now only wearing the sports bra and the brand new pair of panties she picked up. As always, Tennessee wasn’t accepting ‘no’ as an answer. Gavin blushed some more and looked away.

\- “You should put some clothes on before you catch a cold,” he said as he tried to sit up. “We’d be in trouble if you get sick.”

The girl pushed him back, pinning him on the ground as she rolled her hips lasciviously on his forming erection. She leaned on him, pressing her generous breast on his chest and locking her vibrant sage green gaze in his amber eyes. Her pretty raspberry lips, parted sensually, hovered over his face, but Gavin didn’t try to catch them. He perfectly knew by now that she would refuse him the slightest kiss. 

Her luscious breath lingered on his cheeks as Tennessee ran her fingers through the ex-police officer’s hair, drawing a pleased sigh out of him. She knew he liked the way she playfully ran her hands through the chestnut locks of his hair, gently massaging the back of his neck. 

\- “Now,” she sultrily whispered, pressing herself on him with utter desire, “Be a good boy and I won’t have to end this early for you...”

Without looking away, the girl slid one hand down his torso, slipping her fingers under the hems of both his new shirt and undershirt, and slowly peeled them off of him. She made sure she would throw the shirts far enough to prevent Gavin from recovering them in a possible future attempt to call her off again. If he did, she would have to give up. She wasn’t going to force him into anything either. 

In fact, the old shirts he had been wearing in the past year were now closer than the new ones. However, the man didn’t seem to be wanting her off anymore. Tennessee could see the first sparks of fire into his eyes. She traced the perfect lines of his abs with the tip of her fingers as she finally felt Gavin’s on her thighs. It seems like he was changing his mind after all!

A crooked smile curved the corners of her delightful mouth upward as she felt the warm palms of his hands gently stroking the soft skin of her legs up to her hips. He pressed her harder on his hardening cock and the pretty raven haired girl slowly lifted up, inch by inch, the sports bra she was now wearing, exposing her breast to her partner’s eyes. 

Tossing the piece of cloth on the side, Tennessee caught a glimpse into the gold of his irises, an unfamiliar glint flickering in the depths of his amber gaze. There was something wild about the way he was looking at her now, even though he nicely kept his hands on her bottom or hips.

Not worried despite the fierce look on Gavin’s face, the young woman leaned on him again, burying her face in the crook of his neck. Tennessee’s hot breath lingered on his skin as she let her tongue running along these muscles she was slowly growing to like. Just seeing how they rolled under his skin as he moved made her hungrier. She could already feel that familiar warmth between her legs.

Convinced she had the situation under control, as she always did, the pretty raven haired girl unbuckled the man’s belt, undid his pants, and firmly stroked his excitement over his boxer briefs. She could swear she just heard a low, almost animalistic growl rising from his throat, but with the blood rushing through her veins and beating her temples, she wasn’t quite sure. The young woman just kept going and slid her hand under the waistband of his underwear. 

That’s the moment Gavin chose to rise up from his elbows and roll over, inverting their position and pinning the girl down. As she was about to push him away, unhappy about how bold he was right now, Tennessee felt the man’s fingers wrapping themselves around her wrists, holding her hands up above her head. Gavin was staring straight into her eyes, which surprised her a little. The gorgeous young woman puffed her cheeks, but he didn’t give her the time to complain about the sudden change in his behavior. He buried his face in the crook of her neck, nuzzling his way up to the shell of her ear.

\- “This ends when I say it ends,” he said in a low growl.

His voice was so deep and his tone so firm Tennessee felt a strong shiver running down her spine. Gavin never spoke to her like that, but she suddenly felt a desire, a lust, a hunger she never felt before. His teeth brushed her earlobe before the man started to plant ravenous kisses on her shoulder, initiating his way down. However, he never let go of her wrists despite the resistance she opposed him as he was hungrily kissing the skin of her stomach. 

When the gorgeous raven haired girl under him stopped fighting his grip, Gavin locked both her wrists in one hand. The hand he freed immediately reached for her breast with the same voraciousness he showed earlier. His lips then made their way to her other, unsolicited yet, nipple. A longing sigh came out of Tennessee’s mouth, a sigh that pushed him further into the burning desire that took his body over. 

Gavin traced the appealing shape of her nipple with the tip of his tongue, then flicked it over the sensitive nub of pink flesh, drawing another yet louder sigh out of the girl beneath him. Her breath already reached an erratic rhythm as her stomach heaved and sank. Aware of the influence he won over Tennessee, the man bit on the soft flesh between his lips then sucked on it with a haste she never suspected he could be capable of. 

Her first moan sent a shiver down Gavin’s spine as he crashed her hips against her. The girl felt his fully formed erection through what was left of their clothes, and the warmth in her stomach turned into a raging fire. She tipped her head back as Gavin brought her hands down on her stomach and continued his raid on her upper body. His kisses became hungrier and he slowly made his way down to her hipbones. He hooked a finger under the band of her panties and pulled them down, slowly sliding them down her toned legs until they came off her ankles. 

Tennessee’s mind was completely numb and even though she had a small move of disapproval, her rebellion was quickly tamed by the ex-police officer’s hot breath lingering on her hips as his hand ran up her thigh. How could she accept the ascent he was taking on her, the wild and untameable Tennessee? The palm of the man’s hand hovered over her parts, the pulp of his fingers brushing the tender skin of her Mons veneris, but Gavin pulled himself back up over her chest and pressed his forehead against hers. 

He stared right into her eyes, where he could see the emergence of the mist that always clouded her gaze every time pleasure would start trickling through her veins. The gorgeous raven haired girl felt his fingers running along her slit, teasingly tracing the outline of her entrance. A strong shiver shook her body up, but she never averted her gaze. She was way too proud for that. The ex-police officer pushed one long finger inside her and Tennessee closed her eyes, a moan creating a small gap between her pulpy lips. This was the opportunity he was waiting for. 

Gavin’s lips crashed against hers, pulling the girl into a desperately hungry kiss, despite all the objections she emitted about it. She had played with him long enough to deny his own needs any longer. His finger dove in and out of her body, feeling the consistency of her arousal. Her lips were still imprisoned under the plushness of his when the man’s tongue made its way through the barrier of her teeth, exploring her mouth with the same hunger he was driven by since he pinned her down on the cold ceramic floor. The girl’s body was covered in goosebumps, but it had nothing to do with the floor or the fresh air around them. 

Gavin inserted another finger to curl within her body, his lips sealed upon hers, swallowing her moans as they grew even louder. His hand quickly became slick with the fluids between her legs, a pearlescent film dripping on her inner thighs. The wild, strong and untameable raven haired girl was melting between his fingers. She was seemingly still fighting as she tried to hold back her moans, but she was about to lose the battle. Tennessee convulsed around his fingers, her body contracting harder than it ever did, moaning into his mouth as pulses of ecstasy rushed through her. She unconsciously pressed her thighs together, imprisoning his hand against the twitches of her orgasm. Gavin finally freed her lips, chuckling softly through his short breath. He nuzzled the delicate line of the girl’s jaw as she gasped for air.

\- “Finally found a way to shut that filthy mouth of yours,” he muttered in a low, raspy voice, heavy with desire.

His hand moved from the warmth of her folds to the waistband of his boxer briefs and he carefully pulled it over his fully erected cock, freeing his erection from a confinement that nearly became unbearable. Hazy with lust and still lost in the midst of her orgasm, Tennessee barely noticed how soon his shaft pressed on her folds, sliding his length up and down and collecting the fluids her release left behind, nor did she think something might be missing. The young woman could only think of one thing: to feel his cock deep inside her. 

Gavin, urged by the way she was looking at him, quickly aligned himself with her entrance. He pushed slowly, carefully, against the resistance, slick head stretching the delicate skin as he entered her the warmth of her body. Another bestial groan rolled into his chest. The feeling was slightly different, but none of them had their mind clear enough to figure out. 

Tennessee was brought back to the first time she felt him inside her, surprising her with his girth and length, and she thought she was getting used to it. She yelped quietly when he reached the deepest parts of her body, even though the speed at which he made his way into her was the slowest she experimented. The ex-police officer never let go of her wrists as he slowly rocked into her. 

He delicately pressed his lips back against hers. Gavin was pleased to see that she didn’t show any signs of objection this time. In fact, Tennessee’s tongue timidly pressed itself on his teeth, as if asking to be let in. The man happily allowed her in and her hot tongue shyly explored his mouth. He couldn’t help but notice the fruity taste of her saliva, dragging him a little further into his addiction to the young raven haired woman’s body. 

Tennessee’s thighs pressed on his hips and Gavin finally started to move inside her, yanking new moans out of the pretty girl in his arms. The way he rubbed inside her as he gradually built his rhythm had her arching her back, begging for him to bury himself deeper into her. The man’s hand slid from around her wrist up to her hand, quickly matching its twin to that first hand, and laced his fingers with hers.

Their mouths against each other became hungrier, Tennessee moaning into his as he slammed his hips harder against hers. The familiar pressure in her lower abdomen kept growing as Gavin fucked her relentlessly, with both swiftness and sheer passion. Her mouth gaping open when he hit the deepest depths of her warmth, the pretty raven haired girl lashes fluttered and she opened her eyes. She immediately met the ex-police officer’s gaze, dark with a lust she thought only she was capable of in their strange affair. 

\- “Ga...vin!” She cried out breathlessly, as tremors shook her body up.

Tennessee held Gavin’s hands tighter, feeling her release closing in. Her cries of ecstasy echoing in his ears, Gavin moved even faster, harder, and deeper within her body. The young woman was barely able to take it anymore. She had never been taken like this and it felt good, so damn good her mind was blank already, her body revealing the extent of her enjoyment as she tightened around the man’s thick length. He grunted and pulled his lips away from hers, out of breath too, before burying his face in the crook of the girl’s neck, planting a multitude of ecstatic kisses on her skin as he approached his climax.

Beads of sweat dripped in Tennessee’s neck among the kisses she would be craving from now on. The girl tipped her head back, offering more of her throat to Gavin’s lips as he was sending their united bodies into one last sprint into oblivion. She closed her eyes, her face distorting under the pleasure she felt as her body contracted around him, whining loudly as its fire rushed and pulsed through her veins. Her hole twitched around the base of his cock and Gavin clenched his teeth, struggling to keep hitting the depths of the girl’s delicious body as hard as he had been a little earlier. 

He rode her through her orgasm and squeezed his hands around the pretty raven haired girl’s as a long and muttered groan coincided with the warmth inundating the splendid girl beneath him from within after his body trembled against hers. Gavin rolled his hips deeply into her and hungrily pressed his lips against hers one last time. Breathless and covered in sweat, he leaned against her and buried his face in his partner’s neck.

In a haze, he placed light and soft kisses on her shoulder as he was catching his breath. Tennessee, her eyes closed, was still trembling below him. His weight on his forearms and his broad chest pressed against the young woman’s breast, Gavin felt every shiver that ran on her skin. Realizing he was still holding her hands above her head, the ex-police officer freed her and slipped his hands under her head, making sure she was comfortable. On her side, the girl lifted her hands up to his shoulders and one of them kept going until it ran into his sweat-soaked hair.

Her breath was slowly coming back to a steady rhythm and she was gradually emerging from the oblivion she was sent to, clawing her way back to reality. The heat of Gavin’s skin against her was wrapping Tennessee into a warm and comfortable cocoon of well-being she wasn’t used to. Did she ever experience something that pleasant? No, her post-coital habits had always been quite cold and deprived of any kind of proximity. 

However, that bubble of comfort suddenly popped when Gavin, in a slow, soft movement, pulled himself out. The man’s breath suddenly went from a warm caress to an icy sting. A spurt of a warm and viscous substance gushed down the swell of her butt cheek between her legs. Gasping in surprise, the pretty raven haired girl abruptly opened her eyes. Something was wrong. That unfamiliar feeling was wrong. Since she never experienced it before, she needed another second to click.

Her shocked expression turned into horror as she realized the implications and potential consequences of it. Her hand on Gavin’s shoulder pushed him away from her and before he could notice the anger on the young woman’s face, her open palm and fingers collided with his cheek, leaving a burning sensation and the red print of her hand on his skin. Falling on his side, his own hand covering his painful cheek, Gavin met the vibrant sage green gaze, tinted with a rage he never saw in eyes before despite her constant foul mood. 

His head was still buzzing and his thoughts were still disordered as he struggled to understand what was happening here. The ex-police officer figured out as soon as his hazy eyes wandered back on her completely naked, and absolutely gorgeous, body even though his gaze was drawn to her delightful raspberry lips, still swollen from their fervent kisses, as she pushed herself up on her elbows. Gavin’s face and ears were bright red already.

\- “Are you fucking kidding me!?” she shouted with anger, “Ever heard about pulling out, fucktard? And why the fuck weren’t you wearing a condom in the first place!?”

He stood there, in shock, his handsome features crisped into an expression of pure terror. He couldn't believe what he just did. He couldn't believe he let himself do something as stupid as releasing a full load of his semen into a girl, a girl he just started to have sex with a little less than a week ago. A girl he knew nothing about... and a girl that could probably beat the hell out of him for way less than what just happened. Gavin was absolutely unable to find why he did that. He sat up, pulling on his pants, buckling up his belt, then ran his fingers into his chestnut hair, avoiding to meet Tennessee's eyes. He was looking at the ground, right in front of him. 

\- " I... I'm sorry," he said, searching for words, " I don't know what came over me. Go clean up. We can talk or... You can hit me or whatever after." 

Gavin handed her his shirt, avoiding the sight of her appealing pale skin, the thin layer of sweat on her body glowing in the dim light as dusk slowly wrapped its endless tentacles on their world, covering up the last traces of the sun. As soon as he felt the weight of the shirt off his hand, the man stood up and disappeared down the stairs, without the slightest consideration for the lack of fabric over his chest.

Tennessee covered herself with the ex-police officer's shirt, a shiver of disdain running down her spine when she felt and a new gush of warmth coming out of her. She looked at the man's broad shoulders as he went away, furrowing her brows, unsure about how she felt about his reaction. Her face distorted in a wince of repugnance when viscous fluid ran down her leg. Thankfully, restrooms were on the second floor and, even though running water was a thing of the past, she was most likely to find something to clean herself up. 

She put the shirt on, without buttoning it, and quickly got a hold of her water canteen as she walked towards the ladies' room by pure reflex. Old habits die hard. Tennessee was relieved to see this store was one of the rare shops that were still using paper towels instead of hand dryers. That was going to be useful. 

Once she cleaned herself up, Tennessee exited that restroom and looked for the new pair of panties she picked up a little earlier. Unable to find them, she sighed in exasperation and put on a brand new pair. Beside her underwear, she was only wearing Gavin's old shirt, unbuttoned. It was barely covering her breast and stopped right above the delightful crease of her butt-cheeks, but it was the last of her concerns. Catching no sight of the man, walk around a little, searching for him, until she heard some noise coming some downstairs. The girl went to the handrail and leaned on it, trying to find where the sound was coming from. What she saw left her with an arched eyebrow and pursed her lips. On the first floor, a little on the right after the stairs, Gavin was standing in front of one of the concrete pillars that were supporting the ceiling, his feet lined up his strong shoulders, his arms on his sides and his hands clenched into fists. Tennessee had no time to figure out what he was actually doing before he punched the pillar a few times. The girl furrowed her brows as her partner kept beating the rock hard surface. What in the world was wrong with him? She was about to call him out when she heard him mumbling something. Curious, she paid more attention to Gavin's muffled voice as he was speaking through his gritted teeth. 

\- " I'm such a fucking idiot!" he cussed out, giving the pillar another few strong punches, "I'm not some kind of teenager that can't control himself for fuck sake!" 

The man accompanied his last words with a kick this time and Tennessee couldn't help but cringe, thinking about how painful every hit must have been. However, Gavin was apparently not quite done scolding himself yet. 

\- " She's probably going to hate me for sure now..." 

He dropped his forehead into the wall, a little too hard not to hurt, and repeated the motion a few times. 

\- "Stupid, stupid, stupid!" he pestered, finally resting his head on the ice-cold concrete in front of them. 

The raven haired girl kept looking at him from upstairs, her arms crossed on the railing she leaned on earlier. She was... Kind of shocked. She wasn't expecting to see him lose his temper like that. Gavin was always so calm and composed! Biting her plump lower lip, she thought about saying something, hoping to stop the man beating himself up like that, when his voice echoed in the empty showroom again. 

\- "Calm down," Gavin said, his forehead remaining against the pillar, "I can salvage this." 

The ex-police officer placed his hands flat on the concrete and took a few deep breaths. The girl could see the muscles of his back and shoulders rolling under his skin, but for once Tennessee wasn't in awe in front of Gavin's amazingly sculpted body and defined musculature. She was concerned about the scene before her eyes. 

\- "I'll apologize until she tells me to shut up," he breathed out, "I'll let her hit me. I'll let her yell at me all she wants. I'll give her space. She'll have to talk to me at some point, right?" the man then asked himself, "I'll just make it up to her however I can until then." 

After a few more seconds, Gavin turned around, his back against the pillar. It wasn't that clear from where she was, but Tennessee could swear his beautiful amber eyes were red and puffy. When he slid down the wall and sat there with his knees up, resting his head in his arms he previously placed on his knees, the pretty girl decided that she had seen enough. She could have notified the man about her presence, but Tennessee decided to give him a break, some space to calm down. She had her own thoughts and feelings to untangle now... 

Sitting by the changing rooms, the young woman rested her head against the wall behind her and looked up at the ceiling. She was furious about that unprotected sex earlier, but it was all gone now. Stumbling upon Gavin's tantrum threw her off a little. She was still mad, but now she knew he was punishing himself well enough and that he would probably be at it for a while. Slowly breathing out, the wild raven haired girl decided she wouldn't take it out on him since he was beating himself up already, probably just as upset as she was. Seeing Gavin angry, and angry at himself no less, was not something you would see every day. Tennessee wouldn't have imagined he was the type of man that would have this kind of reaction. She wondered what got him to react this way for a split second, but decided she would figure that out later. For now, she had to get her partner out of his misery.

Barely ashamed about the very little clothes she was wearing or how it wasn't covering anything more than what had to be covered, Tennessee went back to the handrail, adopting the same position she had earlier. Nonchalantly leaned on the rail, resting her forearms on it, the pretty raven haired girl loudly cleared her throat. 

\- "Hey," she said in a surprisingly soft voice. 

When she was talking like that, Gavin could swear she was purposely making her voice sound rougher any other time and, when he wasn't busy with an emotional mess, wish she would speak that way more often. That light, soft, and melodic voice had something soothing about it. Unfortunately, it had no effects on him for the moment, his heart skipping a beat as he lifted his head to look at the beautiful young woman, staring at him from upstairs. The man's warm golden gaze pleadingly fell on her.

\- "I'm sorry," he said right away as she started walking down the stairs, almost like he was expecting her to kick him or something in the same range of violence, " I know that doesn't make it right... You can do whatever you want to me," he added, " I deserve it. I should never have lost control like..." 

\- "Shut up." 

Her voice was still softer than what he was used to, but it snapped just as much as it always did, leaving an unsettled Gavin looking at her in surprise, his splendid amber eyes wide opened. 

\- "Just forget it," she sighed with a flick of her hand, the other placed a fist on her hip, "C'mon, we should eat and have a good night of sleep. It's been a while since we last had an opportunity like that.”

Without waiting for his answer, even though he was there, sitting at her feet, Tennessee turned around and went back where she came from. In shock, surprised by the complete absence of shouting and cursing. Gavin needed a moment to start moving, and another moment to realize the pretty raven haired girl was only wearing his old, worn-out uniform shirt he handed her earlier. Despite the discrete and unknown warm feeling in his chest at the sight of the young woman wearing his shirt, he felt his cheeks burning and reddening along with his ears as he wondered why she was still wearing it. She had plenty of clothes to choose from here! Little did he know that the fabric, imbued with his invigorating and earthy scent, eased the girl’s anger a little earlier. It wrapped her in a cocoon of comfort where she was unexpectedly feeling safe.

The very little time left in the evening went by slowly, in silence. None of them said anything, but unlike that time at the food market, the atmosphere was peaceful and comfortable. There was simply nothing to say and they just needed to process their emotions. They were lost in their thoughts. Deep in their thoughts. But there wasn’t any trace of hostility left in the air around them.

Like automates, they ate a little, none of them being really hungry for the moment, and set their sleeping bags for the night. As she always did, Tennessee turned her back to her companion, as if she feared to wake up to his beautiful face and feel flustered.

However, even though Gavin needed quite some time to fall asleep that night, she was still awake when his slow and steady breath eased her anxiety. The pretty raven haired girl slowly, really slowly turned around to face him, making sure she wouldn’t wake him up. The ex-police officer’s handsome features, distorted by guilt and anguish earlier, were now serene, peaceful and undisturbed by the tidal wave of emotion that swept him away that night. 

Tennessee was still thinking about how the man lost his shit in the evening, punching that pillar with a strength she anticipated but was surprised to see at the same time. Remembering how his fist violently collided with the concrete, the young woman’s attention landed on his large hand, resting at shoulder height between the small space between their sleeping bags. Speaking of which, she had to pull her own sleeping bag toward him quite a few times before he stopped fleeing away, a foot or two at the time.

Her sage green eyes, softer than they’d ever been, fell on that hand. As she looked at it attentively for a long moment, she noticed many things she wouldn’t have otherwise. The many calluses reflected the hard manual work he filled his life with, whether it was the dangerous missions he went on or the many adjustments he did on Sparky, his motorcycle. Among that rough skin, she also noticed crisscrossed scars here and there. 

Besides that, Gavin had those large and strong hands with long fingers every man should have to make a girl crazy about them. The kind of hands that makes girls feel safe when they’re softly brushing their skin. The kind of hands that makes the girls feel like they’re the most precious thing in the world when they’re holding them. 

However, Gavin’s hand – probably both but she only had one in sight – suffered from the little mental breakdown he had after that unprotected sex “incident”. His knuckles were badly bruised and a tad swollen. A hit or two and he would’ve been bleeding for sure.

Without really realizing it, the pretty raven haired girl slowly, really slowly, lifted her own hand over his and delicately brushed the tip of her index finger over his contused joints. Her gesture held an unsuspected tenderness, which was quite surprising from her. She had been so rough since they met, like if she couldn’t admit she had that sweet and soft side hidden behind her abrasive attitude. 

Unfortunately for her, Gavin wasn’t sleeping. He was only pretending to be asleep. He instantly went to lace his fingers with hers. In his emotional distress, the feeling of her soft caress over his sensitive knuckles felt like the touch of an angel. He wanted to hold her hand so badly, he needed it, but stopped midway. He froze, his fingers briefly brushing over Tennessee’s wrist, but quickly pulled his hand back. ‘I don’t deserve to hold her hand...’ he thought, rolling over to turn his back to her. 

The girl immediately noticed the movement and understood the man was awake and only pretending to sleep. She frowned, a displeased pout on her face. How long would he lay there, being all pathetic about what happened and ignoring her? She had been pretty nice to him, right? She could have been blaming him for everything and act like the usual bitch she pretended to be. But she decided he was feeling bad enough to give him a break. Despite all this, Gavin was shielding himself away, preventing her from any potential tentative reach for him. Obviously, she wasn’t going to let him run away like that. It would be too easy. And she wouldn’t be Tennessee if she did. 

\- "Hey," she said, " don't turn away from me. I know you are awake." 

\- "Just leave me alone," he said in a plaintive tone the raven haired girl never thought she'd hear from him, "I'm going to sleep." 

She frowned deeply, then closed her eyes, letting a long sigh. This would be a long conversation, she could feel it. 

\- "Fine... You don't have to punish yourself like that though, jerk." 

Gavin didn't turn around, and it wasn't like him not to look at her when they were having a conversation. He answered her, however. 

\- "I am not punishing myself." 

\- "Liar,” the girl replied right away, “I said it's fine and told you to forget about it. It happened. It's over. Let's just move on.” 

That's when the man decided to turn around and face her. Tennessee could see how preoccupied he was and how guilty he felt just with the glint in the gold of his irises, despite the darkness of the night. 

\- "It's not fine. I shouldn't have done that," he said with a firm and convicted voice. 

\- "Dude, stop!" she said abruptly, " I'm fine. I'm over it. You should be too. Punishing yourself like that isn't going to change what happened. 

\- "How can you be so calm about this?" Gavin asked with a hint of apprehension in his eyes. I know what can happen. And you didn't ask for that. 

The pretty girl locked her eyes into the pure gold of his with a calm and steady look. The sage green of her irises, usually so sharp and cold was now warm and soft despite the seriousness of her splendid face, an expression her gaze never expressed before. 

\- "It was a risk regardless, doofus. I was willing to take that risk," she said, "If I wasn't, you never would have gotten close enough to do that." 

\- "It doesn't matter," he replied with a wince, oppressed by self-loathing as his voice was raising, losing any semblance of composure, " I shouldn't have done that unless we were both okay with it. You didn't consent, and that's not okay." 

Tennessee's answer was so unexpected, the man thought he heard it wrong for a split second. She wasn't the type of girl don't give up that easily. In other circumstances, Gavin would've been suspicious about that sudden change of behavior, but the guilt had been eating him away for too long now and the dam was breaking. His unstable emotional state pushed him to react without thinking. 

\- "That's what I've-"

He didn't get to finish his sentence. The gorgeous young woman in front of him quickly cupped his cheeks and pulpy lips crashed onto his. She tilted her head on the side, shifting her weight on her elbow, and deepened the kiss she surprised him with. Shocked at first, Gavin gradually slipped into the girl's embrace, the warmth and the softness of her tongue rolling around his soothing his mind. That kiss wasn't as passionate as the ones they shared earlier, but it got the man's heart throbbing even stronger than before. Who would have thought that the Wild and unforgiving raven haired girl could be compassionate or show that much tenderness, especially in the actual situation? When she felt that he gave in, his hand grasping on her waist, Tennessee gently pulled away, diving into the gold of Gavin's irises. She was as calm as he was upset, but he was about to settle down, thanks to the girl's intervention. 

\- "I wasn't done," she said with a quiet and gentle voice without letting go of the man's face, making sure he would keep looking at her, "Alright, it wasn't okay. I didn't want that, but I also don't want you to beat yourself up over it either." 

She took a short pause, scanning her partner's eyes to make sure he was getting a hold of himself and, with a gentle smile, she added: 

\- "That's my job, jackass." 

Dumbfounded for a moment, Gavin cracked and let out a laugh, relieved, but also taken aback by the girl's unpredictable personality. Only she could be like that. She had been so serious the whole time, and then she pulled that impish line in such a natural way that he couldn't help but laugh. It was Just her, as she had always been. The man felt all the tension in his body being washed away and a wave of happiness warmed him from within. That last line was the moment I understood that everything was okay. Really okay. Trying to suppress her smile, Tennessee gently hit him with the palm of her hand on the shoulder. She frowned, pretending to be offended when she was trying so hard not to laugh too. 

\- "What the hell is so funny?" she said, unable to repress a soft and gentle chuckle. 

-"I'm just relieved," he replied as he naturally started to stroke the curve of her lower rib with his thumb. 

The pretty raven haired girl scooted closer, snuggling up against Gavin's broad and sturdy chest as her fingers distractedly played with the neckline of the shirt he put on for the night and tucked her head between his neck and his shoulder. 

\- "Why?" she asked, looking up at him only to realize she could only see his jaw and chin. 

\- "You were being so nice to me," he answered, resting his chin on top of her head, looking in the distance for a moment, "I thought for sure you would've at least the shit out of me, but then you said it was fine." 

Tennessee pulled away a little to look into The molten gold of his irises. She was happy to see that the warmth they always showed before tonight's events was back, but she couldn't pass up the opportunity to sass back at him a little. 

\- "Did you want me to hand your ass to you?" she said, almost implying she was willing to grant him that wish if he asked her to. 

\- "Yes and no. I mean, I didn't want you to, but I expected it," Gavin replied, "I deserved it." 

The young woman snuggled up against him again. After these few nights in the cold, she wasn't about to say no to a little more warmth. And she wasn't as reluctant as she was before to press herself against the men through the whole night for it. She nuzzled his collarbone, right before her eyes, as she was searching for her words. 

\- "Well, I would have if you didn't beat me to it," she said, keeping her sage green gaze on Gavin's throat, "But I heard you yelling at yourself while you were punching the wall." 

It's Gavin who pushed her away this time, his hands on her shoulders. A glint of surprise and embarrassment agitated his golden gaze. He gulped down nervously, his Adam's apple moving up and down as he scanned the depths of her splendid irises. 

\- "You were watching me?" 

Tennessee averted her gaze but there was no hint of shame on her face. Stumbling on that scene wasn't what bothered her. In fact, what was disturbing her was that she cared, and that's what she was trying to hide right now. However, she lifted a hand up to his wrist, gently pulling his hand away from her shoulder to bring it back between them. 

\- "Yeah..." she replied, "Are your hands okay?" 

The two bright aventurine stones the girl had for irises were softly shining in the dim light, giving them a surreal but breathtaking look where one could see, for a brief moment, the depths of her soul. Courage, intelligence, and honesty were indistinctly whirling around, along with something Gavin couldn't identify at that moment. But it felt good: Warm, soft and kind. The man was it lost for words at first but the insistence on Tennessee's face snapped him out of it. 

\- "They're fine," he answered convincingly. 

\- "Let me see," she exhorted him. 

The pretty raven haired girl pulled on the wrist she was holding and brought it up close to her face to examine it carefully. It wasn't pretty. Gavin's knuckles were swollen, bruised and the skin almost tore up here and there, but thankfully, it should heal quickly without much inconvenience. Tennessee pursed her lips but said nothing, delicately lacing her fingers with his. She rested her head in the crook of the man's neck once more, quiet and thoughtful. 

The young woman listened to his heart for a few seconds, the steady pulsations being somewhat reassuring. Of course, its rhythm wasn't completely peaceful with the actual situation, but it wasn't pounding in his chest anymore either, which was good. Sure enough, Gavin was more at ease and he was comfortable enough to share what he still had on his mind about the matter they were discussing right now. He swallowed difficulty and spoke up once more. 

\- "You didn't consent to me cumming into you and I was wrong for not getting your permission," he said, his voice becoming a little raspy as he was talking, " I fully expect and accept your anger." 

The girl remained silent for a short moment, her thumb absentmindedly running on the inside of Gavin's index finger. However, she was as strong and unwavering as she had always been when she replied to his last words. 

\- "I know the risks, I accepted those risks," she told him, without pulling herself away from his chest but still looking at the feeling from the corner of eyes, "Yes, it was wrong but I know you weren't doing it on purpose and got caught up in the moment. I can forgive it as you are definitely sorry about it." 

Gavin didn't reply to her words. He was relieved despite the knot he could feel in his throat. He was reassured and glad that Tennessee was still comfortable enough with him to be that close after what happened that day. The man placed the hand she wasn't holding under his head and looked at her. His ears were slightly pink, but it wasn't really noticeable. Her eyes were now closed, but her thumb kept tracing the line of his finger, carefully avoiding the bruised area. She wasn't sleeping, but her beautiful features seemed softer, probably because she was slowly relaxing into him, leaving her rudeness and combative attitude behind. Gavin quietly cleared his voice as he softly squeezed the girl's fingers between his. 

\- "Can I... Hold you like this for a while?" he asked. 

Tennessee slowly opened her eyes and tilted her head on the side to look at him for a second. She seemed to be searching for something into the man's amber irises. The young woman didn't plan to stay that much longer into Gavin's arms. She knew he needed that proximity as they were talking that little incident out, but she never intended to make it last through the night. The raven haired girl seared her partner might be developing inappropriate feelings towards her for a split second, but recalling how upset he was a little earlier, she put that thought away in a remote corner of her mind. He probably just needed to be reassured a little more, to make sure she wasn't hiding her disdain or something. 

\- "Fine, but don't get used to it," she snarled off. 

Tennessee snuggled up against him a little more as he circled her shoulders with his arm, without letting go of the hand she slid into his earlier. Gavin rested his chin on top of her head, breathing in the natural smell of her hair, something like fresh leaves in Spring or mowed grass, and enjoying the satin feeling on his skin. The frail body in his arms brought him a peace of mind he needed to get some rest, even though he fought off his sleep for a moment, eager to experience and appreciate her proximity a little more. 

On the other side, the gorgeous girl was already sleeping, wrapped in Gavin's warmth and comforting presence. Being held like that by a man like him had its advantages: She never felt that safe since she left her hometown when the outbreak shredded her life to pieces.

  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter was this close to have "Error 404: Latex not found" as a title xD I'm so sorry xD


	11. From Scars to Stars

They left as soon as the sun was up, as per usual. They were still into the Woodlands, but it was about to change. The day after they left the store, trees gradually rarefied and we're replaced by Rocky lands and slopes. Their progression became more difficult and the terrain slowed them down even more than the woods did. 

If Tennessee had been grumpy before, she had reached a whole new level at this point. The ground was soaking wet since the weather wasn't cold enough yet for it to freeze. Everything was muddy and slippery and, in this mountainous region, it turned out to be quite problematic. Both the young adults we're often tripping or slipping down a small hill. That's what put the pretty Raven haired girl in a constant foul mood. She warmed up a tiny bit on the first day but she quickly went back to her usual rudeness and unpleasant attitude. She never complained, but would frequently let out an angry grunt or click her tongue when she couldn't find safe and steady footholds to go up or down the slopes they were constantly finding on their way. 

Gavin's immediate reaction was to lend her a hand and help her through the tricky parts, but the young woman would only hiss at him and refuse his assistance. Not surprised at all, the man couldn't help but look at her and gently shake his head, half a complicit smile on his lips as the small Fury was passing by him and quickly walking away, grumbling most of the time. She was so stubborn it was almost endearing. 

They had left the store three days ago and the night was slowly falling upon them. Days were getting shorter as the nights were getting longer. The first winter had not been easy for the survivors since mutants have the upper hand in these circumstances. Longer nights meant more time to hunt humans down and less time for their prey to organize themselves and gather essential supplies. The winter to come wouldn't be any easier, but they were together now, right? They could count on each other to go through the hard times and ease their pain and worries. Or at least that's what Gavin was hoping for, but Tennessee? Tennessee wasn't thinking that far. She had more than enough on her mind already. 

They had set their camp in a small grove on a large ledge, somewhere along the path that would lead them to their destination. The duo decided to go through the mountains the road was meandering on since making their way around it would be way too long. However, the trip through the mountain would be way harder. That's what the pretty raven-haired girl realized now. 

She was sitting on a thick but flat stone and she had placed her elbow on her knee to rest her chin in her hand. She looked absentmindedly at the faltering grass at her feet. Frost would appear along the night, as it always did since they left the store, and leave a thousand ice crystals on the ground. Tennessee always hated the moment of the year where this phenomenon was starting to occur. The sight of the vegetation stuck under that thin layer of ice was giving her a strong feeling of uneasiness along with inexplicable sadness. 

It was probably caused by the strong relationship she had with every plant. That's what her Evol was about after all. She could grow anything out of the tiniest bit of soil or even from a single seed in her hand. It had come to be handy a few times when her food supplies were critically low. Besides that, the pretty raven-haired girl hadn't really used her power. Why would she have been using it back then? There was plenty of food everywhere and she would only have been labelled as a freak... with all the consequences related to this appellation. 

Tennessee always thought she was the only one with such powers, or at least that it was an exceptional occurrence. It turned out to be more common than what she initially supposed, even though it was still quite a rare thing. She learned through the news reports during the outbreak that almost 1% of the world population was suspected to be Evolvers, with more or less powerful Evols. She had no idea about what these other Evols could be since Evolvers were more than often hiding their abilities. The young woman herself only used her Evol in secret and only a very few times. 

She picked up a frozen blade of grass and fidgeted with it for a moment, recalling the first time she ever used her special abilities. Memories were flowing in her mind, giving her splendid sage green eyes a hazy look. Her grandmother, who had been raising Tennessee since she came into this world, had been trying to grow every possible kind of plant, from fine herbs to the most delicate flowers, without forgetting numerous vegetables in between. Unfortunately, the old lady never managed to keep any of these plants alive but kept trying.

The young Tennessee wanted to help her dear grandmother so badly that one day she went up to the faltering lilies, sitting in their pot by the window, and began to talk to the plant. She asked the flowers to grow healthy and strong, so she could see her Nana being proud of her work. She told them her grandma would take good care of them and that she would help. The lilies immediately looked greener and, over the course of a few days, they became the most beautiful bunch of lilies in town. From that moment the raven-haired girl would regularly talk to the plants, asking them to please the old lady until she realized it had nothing to do with the plants listening to her. 

Tennessee's heart sank into her chest and, overwhelmed by a wave of nostalgia, she placed her hand above the ground, palm facing down. Suddenly, the space between the frosted grass and her hand was bathed in a warm and surreal yellowish light and a flower slowly rose from the ground. It had alternately arranged leaves divided into leaflets with smooth, lightly toothed edges and a single head at the top of the frail stalk. Many rows of bright yellow ray florets were overlapping to create that big, fluffy flower. Even though she never saw that specific type of flower in her life, Tennessee knew exactly what it was, as she always did. It was instinctive for her.

\- "Yellow Chrysanthemum," she whispered with a faint smile on her beautiful features, slightly marred by an exhausted expression. 

Tennessee tenderly ran her fingers under that vivid inflorescence, absorbed by the delicate and comforting look of the flower. Deeply lost in her thoughts and all wrapped up in her contemplation, she didn't notice that Gavin had returned from his trip to the nearby river. He went to refill their stocks with the crystal clear water that was running down the mountains and when he came back, he stumbled on this quite enchanting, almost fairy-like vision of the beautiful raven-haired girl handling that splendid flower that couldn't possibly be growing here by itself. The ex-police officer didn't say a word nor made the slightest move, fearing that the dreamlike image he had in front of him would suddenly crumble down and disappear. 

Under her rough exterior and rude manners, that girl had a softer side she was fiercely hiding from anyone. He couldn't tell exactly what happened for her to be like that, but he knew she'd been hurt, just as badly as he had been many times in his own life. He was also keeping people away with his stoical attitude and lack of words. Tennessee's ways we're simply louder and thundering. Gavin even fell in love once... but now he was carefully avoiding those memories. It would hurt too much. He wasn't ready yet, even though the weight he carried on his shoulders was slowly and unnoticeably disappearing. Gavin watched the young woman for a while, unable to take his eyes off of her. He was even at loss for words for a moment. When he finally got a hold of himself, he finally notified the girl about his presence, clearing his throat as softly as possible. 

\- "Uhm, it's pretty..." he said with unexpected warmth in his voice. 

Startled, Tennessee immediately pulled her hand back. Suddenly cut from the power of the girl's Evol, the chrysanthemum completely withered in a few seconds, reaching a state of decay where it simply turned into dust. The surprise on her face quickly faded away, replaced by a discrete pink line going from one of her porcelain cheeks to the other. Of course, the wild Tennessee would never admit she was blushing and immediately hid it behind her irritation. She puffed her cheeks, darting the two vivid amazonite stones she had for eyes on him, snarling. 

\- "Fuck, dude! Don't creep up on me like that, you jerk," she said, crossing her arms in front of her. 

Before Gavin had any chance to answer, the pretty raven-haired girl averted her gaze. She didn't want the man in front of her to notice the fluctuating emotions hidden in the depths of her green irises. Her heart was pounding in her chest, triggered by her mixed feelings. One of her biggest secrets had been exposed, creating a breach in her armour. The vulnerability she felt at that moment had her panicking a little. The girl had been fighting all her life to keep people away from these pieces of information she deemed confidential and quite personal. Tennessee was also ashamed that this specific element of her life had been revealed. There were a thousand things she hadn't told Gavin about herself. she would have been willing to uncover them if this one could have been kept unknown. Even though the remaining survivors were all Evolvers, she was still feeling unsafe about revealing her own evol to others. It was too late now, and she needed to get a hold of herself. Now. 

It had been so easy for her to keep people out before. But Gavin had... Something, a way to worm his way through her defences that was seriously starting to frighten the young woman. She was already scared to be hurt back when the world was still a synonym of civilization, but it was even worse now. There were already so many ways to lose someone back then and there was a thousand times more today. Mutants could snatch them away in the blink of an eye, lack of supplies could have disastrous consequences, accidents were happening so quickly. Nope, She couldn't even think about it. She was better off alone and she would stay alone. Gavin was only a strategic partnership. This emotional vortex whirled in her chest for only a few seconds, even though it felt like an eternity to the pretty raven-haired girl. It's Gavin's voice that brought her back to reality. 

-"Sorry, I wasn't trying to," Gavin said, briefly averting his gaze before laying back the molten gold of his irises on Tennessee, “Is that your Evol?”

The question caused a painful sting in her heart, but the girl remained steady on our feet and let out a long, irritated sigh. The wild glint in the green of her eyes was announcing one of her sneering answers. 

\- "Nah, it's a magic trick," she said, "Of course it's my Evol, Captain Obvious!" she added as she rolled her eyes. 

Her gaze locked on him, Tennessee watched as the man scratched his neck. Out of options to hide her powers, the wild raven haired girl replied once more. However, she pursed her plump raspberry lips as she did. 

\- "Show me yours." 

\- "Sorry?" Gavin said, a bit surprised by her request. 

\- "Now that you spied on me and saw my Evol, you need to show me yours." 

The inflections of a voice made her request sound more like an order than the demand it was meant to be. Gavin's brows raised in surprise but a smile quickly appeared on his lips. Unsuspecting, Tennessee waiting for his answer, only to be disappointed by what the man was about to say. 

\- "Let's eat first," Gavin said, "It was a long day and we both need a good meal. I can show you later." 

\- "You're not getting away with it like that!" the girl replied, "It's not fair!" 

The pout on the young woman's face almost made him laugh tenderly. How could she be so fierce but so cute at the same time? So strong but so delicate? She was a real phenomenon all to herself, sometimes a little hard to handle, but her presence helped lighten up his days somehow. Gavin walked up to her, stopping by her rock seat and held his hand out to her, the molten gold of his eyes glowing with an unfamiliar warmth. 

\- "I'll show you, I promise." 

\---- ---- ---- ---- 

Through the whole hour they needed to prepare their camp and eat their meal, the tenacious raven-haired girl never stopped pestering Gavin about his Evol. She tried to guess, or at least get some clues from the ex-police officer, in vain. He didn't say a single word about what his special ability could be. Even when she said she wouldn't talk to him until he spilled the tea, her delicious lips forming the most immature pout that rough girl could possibly pull, Gavin remained completely silent. He had that crooked smile on his face and that mischievous, playful glint in his eyes. In other circumstances, Tennessee would have appreciated that cheeky look and probably tried to pull something more "frisky" to turn that situation to her advantage, but she was too annoyed by his unusual impish attitude. 

When they finally cleared what was left of the food, the young woman almost dashed on her partner, as much as their tent was allowing her to dash on him. They packed that winter camping tent the day they left the Outdoor Equipment Store. It was way better than the tarp Tennessee was previously surviving with and it made their nights so much more comfortable. However, the available space was just as small as what that tarp allowed them. They weren't sleeping on top of each other, but there was no way not to touch the other either. That's why the girl's dash looked more like she was bending forward than anything. 

\- "Are you going to show me or not? Tell me at least!" she whined. 

Gavin chuckled and unzipped the tent door, amused by how impatient that gorgeous, but oh so stubborn, the young woman could be. He reached his head to her and softly smiled at her. One of the warm Smiles he would only show when some kind of complicit moment was about to happen. 

\- "Follow me," he said, 

Gavin let her outside, a few steps away from the navy blue tent, near the fire she started earlier that was now nearly dying. They wouldn't need it to go through the night, however. Tennessee was about to pull her hand out of Gavin's, but the man squeezed it tighter and prevented her from parting. He looked at her straight into the two sparkling amazonite stones she had for irises and said: 

\- "Close your eyes." 

\- "What!? What do you think you're doing? I'm not closing my eyes," she replied, "I'm not giving you a single chance to pull out some weird shit on me, boy!" 

Gavin was standing still in front of Tennessee, towering over her. Despite the fierce look into her eyes, he didn't budge. 

\- "You want to see my Evol, right?" he said, the dying fire giving the molten gold of his eyes a depth that almost threw the young woman off her feet, "Just trust me. Close your eyes and let me hold you." 

The raven-haired girl sighed heavily and crossed her arms in front of her. 

\- "Fine," she said, " But try anything funny and I'll kick your goddamn ass!" 

Giving the man one last suspicious look, Tennessee closed her eyes, lifting her chin a little as the proud girl she was, relentlessly fighting off every step taken towards her. Gavin crossed the very few steps between them and wrapped his arms around the little fury he was growing fond of. A gust of wind whirled around them and the young woman pressed herself into the man's chest, expecting the strong blast of air to be as dry and cold as they had been in the past few days, but it turned out to be quite warm and pleasant. 

Before she could think this any further, Gavin took advantage of the move the pretty girl made towards him and squeezed her tighter in his arms. The wind grew stronger and Tennessee suddenly felt lighter. A little uneasy about that strange sensation, she dug her nails into Gavin’s shirt. 

\- "Can I open my eyes now?" she asked, trying her best to keep her voice from wavering. 

\- "Wait a little more. No peeking," he answered with a warmth in his voice that the raven-haired girl felt through his chest.

Gavin brought them higher and higher until they were surrounded by hundreds of shining stars, dazzling in the sky like diamonds. Beneath them, all they could see was a dark mass of treetops, accentuating the feeling of nothingness around them. Just like if there was nothing else left in the world but the two of them and the stars. The wind then blew gently at Tennessee's side, the gorgeous waves of her ponytail swaying and tickling her neck. 

\- "Did you feel it?" the man asked, his nose brushing against the dark and silky bangs on her forehead. 

\- "Feel what?" 

Gavin changed the direction of the wind to the other side, softly rocking them from side to side in the starry night. The pretty raven-haired girl was still clinging to him, but he could feel the tension in her body slowly melting away. He couldn't keep himself from smiling tenderly. 

\- "That," he answered softly. 

\- "The wind?" 

To keep her from panicking, Gavin, one of his arms tightly wrapped around her shoulders, slipped the other one under her knees, shifting Tennessee from her standing position to another one where she was completely into the man's arms. As he moved, the girl wrapped her arms around his neck, her body suddenly knowing she needed to hold on to him somehow. The ex-police officer brought his lips to the shell of her ear and his warm breath, lingering on her skin, sent a shiver down the girl's spine as he whispered, in a low and breathy voice: 

\- "Yes." 

She opened her eyes, their vibrant green meeting the gold of Gavin.s gaze before she looked around them, trying to figure out where in the world she was now. The first thing she noticed was the complete absence of ground below them. Tennessee gasped in surprise, a small cry of fear stuck into her throat as she tightened her grip around her partner's neck. She looked at him again, as to confirm he was really responsible for all this. She was flying in the sky among the Stars after all! No wonder she needed to double-check she wasn't dreaming. Quickly doing the math, the raven-haired girl didn't need his answer to figure out the answer was "yes". 

She kept looking around, in awe before the glistening Stars, and her body almost immediately got rid of the new tensions caused by the surprise, relaxing into Gavin's arms. She was completely at a loss for words, her mouth agape and twisting her neck in every direction to catch the slightest bit of the splendid scenery before her eyes. Her irises were sparkling, not only from the reflection of the stars but also from the fireworks of emotions on her face. From the sheer bewilderment, the amazement and the admiration to the beatitude, the joy and the cheerfulness Gavin could read into her beautiful sage green gaze, even the tiniest space was not left untouched by the exquisiteness of the light that appeared her splendid features. 

As the girl was filled with wonder before the heavenly bodies all around them, the man couldn't take his eyes off of her. The expression on her face was so different from what he was used to, he could swear it wasn't the same girl, that she had been replaced by a softer, happier version of herself. Was that how she looked before she went through whatever sucked innocence and cheerfulness out of her? Gavin wished it was the case. She was so stunning, literally magnetic, right now. When the man thought she couldn't be any prettier, a shooting star passed by them, right above their head, and Tennessee's eyes lit up even more, feeling his breath away for a second. A tender smile on his lips, he placed his forehead on hers. She was so high-spirited she didn't protest, even though she couldn't see the stars anymore. 

\- "Do you want to make a wish?" he said. 

The girl blinked slowly, her long, thick eyelashes tickling his cheeks. A mischievous glint flashed into her eyes, so fast the ex-police officer thought she saw it wrong. The two pure amazonite stones she had for eyes were back to that soft and sweet doe-like look the stars gave them earlier. She lifted her chin, their breath mingling as her soft and Luscious lips brushed on Gavin's jawline. 

\- "I wish..." she said in a low, sultry voice. Tennessee looked straight into the man's eyes. The time stopped and all they could hear was their own peaceful and steady heartbeat. Until the girl's smokey voice rose from her throat again. 

\- "I wish you'd shut up." 

Bam. Despite the thousand stars in her eyes, the good old Tennessee, witty, straightforward and mischievously playful, was back. Just like he liked her. Since he was in a good mood, Gavin followed her into that game she liked to play. He was feeling playful too. 

\- "You can try to make me," he replied, using the same seductive but bratty tone. 

that smartass, arrogant grin she wore so well, appeared on her face and her hands on his shoulders climbed up his neck until her delicate fingers cupped his cheeks. The beautiful raven-haired girl never averted her gaze, diving into the molten gold of Gavin's irises. She was getting to know every spot, every shade of his eyes, but they were still as hypnotic as the very first time they met. "You shouldn't play with fire, boy," she thought to herself as her smile widened. 

She could have crashed her lips onto his, with the same tempestuous energy that she previously showed, but she didn't. Instead, Tennessee slowly lifted her head a little more, brush shirt delightful lips on his as she closed her eyes. She waited for him to make the rest of the way. Their lips finally met, and a dam broke somewhere into their minds. That soft and tender kiss quickly caught on fire. The girl's hands, pressed on his cheeks, slid down to the back of his neck, where one of them flipped under the neckline off the man's shirt. Her twin went the other way and grabbed a handful of his hair on the back of his head. Shivering from the tenderness in that kiss, Gavin tilted his head on the side, ravenously deepening their embrace. His tongue met the warmth of Tennessee's mouth and he caught the girl's first sigh into his. He felt the urge to let his hands on her Delicious body, but he couldn't since they were busy holding the young woman into his arms. Surrendering to his desire would weaken his grip on her. Gavin already, somewhere in the back of his mind, knew he might not be able to keep them in the air much longer. As to confirm his thoughts, Tennessee pressed herself on him some more, her nails digging into the skin of his shoulders but. That familiar longing began to grow into his lower abdomen. Gavin groaned, backing off supposed to pull himself away from her before getting any closer to a potential accident. 

\- "Let me take us down first," he said in a husky, heavy with lust and desire voice. 

The young woman in his arms kept placing hot and wet kisses along his jaw, his chin, and his neck. She felt his whole body shuddering against her every time she pressed her soft, plump lips on his skin. Tennessee even found herself nibbling at the ex-police officer's collarbone, focusing on the scar that was crossing it. It was something she would never have done before he stole that first kiss from her a few days ago. She fought so hard, always avoiding to cross that line she drew herself, she never thought it could feel this good. To kiss and be kissed, outside the teasing once she allowed herself from time to time was utterly addictive. 

When their feet touched the ground, the pretty raven-haired girl crashed her lips against his once more. Her hand left Gavin's hair and neck run down his muscular back before she brought them back to his stomach, sliding the tip of her fingers under the hem of His shirt to run them along the fine lines of his abs. Gavin immediately wrapped his strong arms around her waist, one of his hands low on the small of her back, and deepened their kiss again. Just that kiss made him dizzy and the world around him turned into a blur. On her side, Tennessee was caught in the same swirl of Sensations. 

She suddenly pushed him back towards their tent, her lips only parting with his to take a breath in before picking up that feverish kiss where she left it. Gavin soon fell on his back, into the tent, without a single move to cushion the impact of his fall while he fully absorbed it for the pretty lady in his arms. Tennessee's hands were heatedly running on the man's body, just like he passionately caressed every curve he encountered. 

She pushed his coat back until he got rid of it then tugged at the hem of his shirt and Gavin hastily took it off, impatient to feel the girl's silky skin on his. She was standing on her knees, straddling him, but he quickly addressed the situation and ran his hands down her back to get a hold of her bottom, unexpectedly pulling her up. Tennessee fell onto him and the ex-police officer took the opportunity to pull the Woolen dress she wore over her head. Everything else she had on was so tight-fitting there was nearly nothing left to the imagination. Gavin was intending to know that body like the back of his hand by the morning anyway... and he already had a few chances to take a good look at it recently. 

The man lifted the young woman's purple isothermal shirt over her breast, along with that surprisingly inviting sport bra then sat up, momentarily breaking their kiss. He flicked his tongue over his lips as his right hand cupped the soft, round, and warm mound of flesh he freed from the tight fabric. His left hand copied its twin and he pressed his fingers around her breast, running his thumb over her erected nipple. Tennessee felt that familiar warmth rushing from her lower belly and down between her legs. She was about to reunite her lips with Gavin's when he brought his mouth over the sensitive nub he was softly stroking. He ran the tip of his tongue over it, drawing an impatient sigh out of the pretty raven-haired girl. The ex-police officer took the stiffened bead flesh between his lips. Tennessee's sighs gradually turned into moans as he sucked on her nipple. 

Her skin was now burning hot, heated up by Gavin's caresses while all she could think of was about feeling him inside her. She leaned forward to rest her forehead on his shoulder as she gently pushed him away from her breast. The gorgeous young woman placed a heated kiss in the crook of his neck and brushed her teeth on the man's bare skin, urging him to take it further. Suppressing a soft chuckle as he passionately kissed his way up her jaw, Gavin wrapped his arms around her again then placed himself between her legs. Tennessee crossed one of her arms over her breast, only to see it immediately removed as her partner leaned on her, pressing their bodies together. He gave her one long, sensual and desirous kiss then left a trail of similar pecks on the way down her chest. 

When he reached the area below her navel, the girl quickly tried to sit up. She ran her fingers in his hair and she tried to pull him up, guessing what the man had in mind. However, Gavin wasn't intending to comply unless she really wanted him to stop. But the lack of strength in her grip told him it was more about keeping up appearances than protesting. Hooking his fingers under the band of her brand new leggings, he slowly pulled them down as he nuzzled the skin it was revealing, backing off a little to completely free her long, voluptuous legs. He did exactly the same with her panties, but his moves were even slower as he admired her splendid body. Her curves were gradually highlighted by the tenth layer of sweat forming on her skin. 

A myriad of hungry kisses all over her body's later, Gavin pulled her into a rough, passionate kiss, then traced his way back down her chest one last time, marking his progression with the tip of the tongue on her delightful skin. Tennessee was already feeling like a mess, the world around her now completely overshadowed by her longing for him. If she would have been told she would feel like this with only preliminaries, she would have laughed. But here she was, Gavin's lips devouring her hip bones and her inner thighs as she was losing grip on reality. 

He was teasing the crease at the junction of her leg and pelvis when she caught him looking at her face. The proud raven-haired girl's cheeks turned bright red. She reached out at him to drive him away from her parts where she could feel his hot breath tickling the most sensitive area of her body. However, one of Gavin's hands kept her from doing so, locking for her wrist between his fingers. She tried to fight his grip but it seemed she had, at least subconsciously, no intention to free herself. Looking straight into her hazy but sparkling green eyes, Gavin lowered his head between her legs and the molten gold of his services disappeared, quickly replaced by soft locks of chestnut hair tickling the skin of her stomach. 

Tennessee felt the warmth of his tongue slipping between her lips, running along her creases, folds, and curves. It sent strong shivers down the girl's spine and she wished she could cover her mouth with her hand, ashamed by the sound slipping through her lips. They sounded way less controlled than the moans the ex-police officer heard from her before. 

Encouraged by his observation, he sat back on his heels and dragged Tennessee's body along with him, sending her legs over his shoulders. A new wave of bright red covered her face when she realized the position she was in. Her shoulders resting on Gavin's thighs and her body almost completely upright, she was entirely exposed and at the man's mercy. She whimpered a little when she felt his tongue at her entrance, but she quickly left her pride aside and gave herself in to enjoy her partner's caresses. 

Jolts of pleasure ran through her, drawing a gasp out of the raven-haired girl when Gavin flicked his tongue over her clit. He released her hands and Tennessee dug her nails into the thick fabric of the man's pants as he oriented his attention towards that small but so sensitive bundle of nerves between her legs. Familiar pressure slowly building in her abdomen, she had a hard time keeping her moans from getting louder. Her chest heave and sank with every breath she took.

One of Gavin's hands, placed on her thigh, ran up her body and caressed her stomach. He cupped and fondled her breast with haste as his enthusiasm rose with the girl's pleasure. Tennessee was close to the edge and Gavin intended to delight himself with every single second of her orgasm. His tongue swirled around her clitoris a few more times but it was soon replaced by the man's hot and soft lips. Moaning and panting, the gorgeous young woman was already at her limit when he started to suck on the fleshy pink nub at the center of her pleasure.

She pressed the palm of her right hand on her face, covering her eye and a small portion of her forehead as her fingers drew a few strands of silky raven hair out of her hairdo. Too proud to stand the weight of the ex-police officer’s golden gaze on her face, Tennessee closed her eyes and bit her lower lip as she felt her orgasm bubbling up from within. With one last flick of his tongue, he sent the pretty raven-haired girl over the edge. Her body twitched into his arms as she arched her back, a strong cry of ecstasy filling the man’s ears.

A satisfied smile on his face, Gavin delicately put the young woman down on his lap. He wiped his mouth, glistening with the remaining of her release, with the back of his hand then twisted his upper body to zip up the tent’s door they left wide open. Thankfully, it got so hot neither of them felt cold, even for a second. Now safe from prying eyes and sheltered from the cold, the ex-police officer leaned back on the girl and his lips crashed onto hers. The taste of her own body lingered on her tongue when Gavin crossed the barrier of her teeth. A shiver shook her up. Tennessee, despite her long history of one night stands and wild sex life, never experienced this. She knew the smell, but the taste was new to her. How could she anyway, since she never let anyone kiss her before? Gavin won her over somehow and she was now hungry for more. More of his kisses, no matter if they tasted like him or like her. More of his hands on her skin. More of his presence inside her. She had been craving sex before, but now it had a face and a name. How ironic was it that the man at the origin of this phenomenon was a cop? She had never been fond of them... 

Waves of pleasure were still pulsing through her body when he broke their embrace to lean on her some more and reached for the front pocket of the girl’s backpack, pressing his excitement on her. Holding the square foil between his middle and index finger, the man sat back on his heels and unbuckled his belt as Tennessee covered her face with both her hands, catching her breath. While she tried to get a hold of herself, unable to keep a grip on the slightest thought crossing her blurry mind, Gavin pulled the band of his boxer briefs over his fully erected cock and gave himself a few good strokes. His fingers wrapped around the base of his shaft, he rubbed its tip between the pretty raven-haired girl’s legs and collected the juices still dripping from her slit. 

Feeling the warmth of Gavin’s manhood along her folds without the appropriate protection, Tennessee instantly removed her hands from her face and glared at him, making sure he was fully in control of himself. After what happened last time... But Gavin remembered perfectly and he was far from making the same mistake again. That didn’t mean he wouldn’t allow himself to enjoy the warmth of her folds from time to time if he kept himself from any further intrusion.

Catching the silent threat in the young woman’s vibrant green gaze, the man leaned on her, his cock sliding up her slit, and brushed his lips on her chin as their breaths mingled. He rested his forehead against hers and looked straight into her eyes, The ex-police officer could read Tennessee’s longing for him in the depths of her irises and he felt a tingle in his stomach. His own gaze, its molten gold shades burning with passion despite their soft warmth had the girl shuddering below him. Her nerves were wearing thin, but Gavin finally spoke up, in a deep, low and hoarse voice. 

\- “You’re so pretty with your face all flushed like that...”

Before she could reply or move away, her handsome partner gently pressed his lips on hers, pulling the pretty raven-haired girl into a long, sensual kiss. With a faint groan, he finally pulled away from her, just what he needed to move easily and carefully tore the foil open, The man removed the condom from it and unrolled it down his erection with a pinch at the top. He slid his hand under her knee, lifted her leg a little higher and lined himself with Tennessee’s entrance. She took a breath in, impatiently waiting for Gavin to fill her body with his presence, and the yearning glint in her hazy sage green irises urged him to hurry up and make his way in. 

Her need to feel him inside her was so strong that a plea was forming at the tip of her tongue. If she had the slightest control over her mind right now, she would’ve internally slapped herself. How could she be thinking to beg him to satisfy her needs? When did she lose her drive? When did she give him the entire leadership of their ‘sessions’? It wasn’t like her! Not at all! But he made her feel so good... The ex-police officer pressed himself against her hole and slowly entered her. He placed her legs over his shoulders as he did earlier, silently promising her to bury himself deeper into her than he ever did before. 

However, he was moving slowly, getting used to the feeling of her body around him in that position. He wasn’t the only one that needed to get used to new sensations. As soon as she thought she tasted the best ways Gavin could feel inside her, she was surprised with something even better once more. Was that even possible? She couldn’t tell. Gavin’s motions, even at that slow rhythm, washed her mind away. All she could do was to arch her back as new trickles of pleasure rushed through her again. Her gentle moans were soon filling the man’s ears again. 

One of his hands tenderly brushed her satin-like skin from her outer thigh to her waist where it rested as he deepened his thrusts into the gorgeous raven-haired young woman. A grunt slipped through his parted lips when he felt Tennessee placing her hand on his, lacing their fingers together. Both of the young adults could feel the heat between them, pressure building up in their bodies as their breaths became loud and erratic. Any notion of control they had seemed to be gradually erased from their minds. One of Gavin’s thrusts hit a sensitive spot in the depths of the girl’s body, causing her to gasp and arch her back some more. 

\- “Gavin...!”

He couldn’t tell if his mind was playing tricks on him or if Tennessee just whispered his name in the midst of passion, but a warm feeling dripped in his veins and added fuel to his internal fire. Gavin lifted her hips a little and leaned on her, pushing her thighs closer to her upper body and deepening his thrusts into her as he let one of her legs slide down from his shoulder to rest into the crease of his elbow. It allowed him to lay on her enough to catch her lips again. Tennessee’s moans were quickly growing in intensity and volume into the ex-police officer’s mouth, punctuated by a few of his own sighs and growls. He was building a rhythm, making sure he wasn’t too hard on her, when the young woman arched her back some more, sending him deeper inside her as she felt her release closing in. 

Her hands ran up his strong arms to rest on his shoulders where she unconsciously squeezed her fingers on his skin in time with his ardent thrusts. Gavin was used to the girl being quite loud in these moments of blissfulness, but she reached a whole new level when he felt her body contracting around him as she reached her second orgasm, drawing a low growl out of him. Matching his second hand to the one on her hip, the man picked up the pace and rode Tennessee through her release, just like she liked it. But it didn’t seem to be enough for the wild young woman. 

Panting heavily, the girl raised her hand to grab a handful of his hair as she wrapped her other arm around his neck to pull herself from the ground and press her forehead onto his. She looked into his amber gaze for a second, stars dancing before her, then closed her eyes. If her face wasn’t already bright red from their activities, Tennessee would have blushed heavily, so ashamed about what she was about to say. But she wanted more. She NEEDED more. More of the pleasure he was giving her. More of his body. More of him. Her voice came out as a pleading, raspy breath.

\- “Gavin...” she said, “Please... Fuck me... Fuck me harder!”

The ex-police officer’s motions completely stopped, and the girl felt the warmth of his fingers softly brushing her cheek. She slowly opened her eyes, fearing the expression she would read in the gold of his irises. The gorgeous young woman was expecting surprise, or even disdain, but she was caught off guard. Gavin was tenderly gazing at her, a warm smile on his lips and a soft glow into the amber of his eyes. His fingers traced the pretty girl’s delightful lips then lingered on her cheek before he kissed the tip of her nose. The man then wrapped one arm around her shoulders, the other maintaining her hips in their actual position as he pressed his chest against her. His lips teased the shell of her ear and lingered on her earlobe before his answer echoed in Tennessee’s whole body.

\- “As you wish, pumpkin...” he whispered.

Gavin resumed his motions, progressively accelerating and deepening his thrust to meet the girl’s expectations, and was soon ramming into her. She was always managing to pull the beast out of him. With such animalistic thrusts, he was quickly out of breath. The sweat on their bodies was becoming one as Tennessee’s moans echoed into the night again. Her hands in his back were clawing at him, leaving red trails behind them. Gavin could see with the look on her face that he wouldn’t need much more to send her to oblivion. The young woman arched her back as much as she could to lift her hips a bit more and feel Gavin reaching the deepest parts of her body. 

The slight change of angle made him realize he was just as close to his release. In one last sprint of passion, filled with ardent embraces, Gavin let out a low growl as he fought against his own body to match the girl’s climax. Her body finally shuddered and squeezed around him, one last vocalization of her ecstasy reverberating into his body as she unconsciously dug her nails into his shoulders. This night would leave a few marks on Gavin’s body, but he was far from complaining. 

Crashing his lips onto hers once more, he swallowed the end of her exclamation of pure ecstasy. A few more strong thrusts later, his rhythm became erratic and his legs twitched as Gavin filled the condom he wore with his hot seed. His motions finally came to an end while he buried his face into the crook of the young woman’s neck. As his heavy breath trickled on her skin, he enjoyed the moment where ecstasy rushed and pulsed through their bodies. The ex-police officer delicately put the pretty raven-haired girl back on the ground, his body remaining above hers. Shifting most of his weight to his forearms on both sides of her head, he covered Tennessee’s neck and collarbone with feather-like kisses, gradually catching his breath.

Her hands shaking into his back, the girl was gasping for air under him, completely out of it. The veil of pleasure over her half-opened eyes was slowly disappearing. She needed some time, but she was finally able to grab onto her thoughts... even though these thoughts weren’t exactly what she would’ve wanted. 

Mortified, Tennessee recalled every word she said. How she called his name. How she asked for more. She felt her heart dropping into her feet as she wondered what Gavin was thinking about it. Poor girl. He wasn’t thinking anything about it. He had a great time, his mind was blank and he was enjoying how the girl’s skin felt against his, how warm her body was around him... The bitter taste of her sweat on his lips had something charming, and he kissed her shoulders some more. 

The man was somehow amused about how satisfied he felt after he got her off like that. In fact, he was getting a little more content every time Tennessee was losing her mind under his touch. It had been harder to achieve in their first few encounters, but Gavin was getting to know the wild raven haired girl and her body. He had to admit he liked that. Getting to know her every curve like the back of his hand, what was pleasing her and how she was reacting... As wild as he had been in his teenage years, focusing on his partners, or keeping them, wasn’t exactly his main goal.

Once he became a grown man and wished to pleasure the girl he was with... he didn’t get the chance to do it. Life had been keeping him away from it with some twisted fate and he had been overwhelmed by the pain her loss caused him ever since. However, it hadn’t been coming back to him as much as it used to. Of course, Gavin didn’t notice yet that sorrow and grief had been missing for quite a while now. He didn’t realize how easier it was for him to breathe nor how the sun seemed brighter lately. He was so used to seeing the world through his grief that he wasn’t aware it began to change. Even if he knew, he wouldn’t be able to tell what caused that change. Was it how focused he was on the progression of his mission? Was it the time that passed by? Or was it something as natural as not being wrapped into his own loneliness now that Tennessee was by his side, even though they weren’t emotionally involved with each other? Or maybe something more subtle, more insidious? Unfortunately, all this reasoning, all the road he still had to go through was out of his reach, buried under the weight of their survival... And maybe hidden behind the delightful vision of Tennessee’s naked body into his arms too. 

Her breath was now slow and steady, just as if she never felt ashamed by how strong her desire for him had become in such a short period of time. She looked so peaceful, asleep in his arms without any clothes on, the man could swear she was only pretending to be as heartless and mistrusting as she claimed to be. After these long, very long minutes he spent freely going down the stream of his thoughts, Gavin finally pulled away from the young woman and got rid of the condom following his usual routine. 

He pulled his boxer briefs and pants back on and since the tent wasn’t allowing them much space, he simply needed to roll over to come back to the sleeping beauty by his side. He wrapped his arms around her and placed a kiss on top of her head. He felt somewhat grateful about her presence and the relief she was bringing along with her naughty games and witty comebacks. Gavin covered them with his unfolded sleeping bag since he didn’t want to wake her up to get her into her own bed. He was also afraid she would turn around to sleep on her own. Unconsciously, he was starting to need her presence, her warmth into his arms and every time she refused him her contact was annoying him a bit more. He was starting to need the fearless glow into her aventurine gem-like eyes, the satiny feeling of her skin under his fingers and the smell of her body. Gavin was starting to need her, more than he would’ve ever imagined. More than he ever needed anyone. 


	12. Ruflled Feathers

It had been almost a week since that night. They had been walking, as always, progressing towards the higher plates of the mountain. They were having one of their "sessions" every other night, but nothing as spontaneous or passionate. It was mostly Tennessee seeking a little attention and stress relief before falling asleep. Once again, it had nothing to do with how they slept that night. The girl would sleep in her own sleeping bag, turning her back to him most of the time.

Whatever happened that night was gone and everything was back to normal. Tennessee was her usual Tennessee. Not exactly pleasant, but not particularly unpleasant either. Just the same rude and arrogant smartass she had always been. The only difference was probably how their cooperation was now well established and smoothly running, almost natural. Days were routinized and felt like they were all the same.

That day was like any other and they had been walking since the morning. It was early in the afternoon, but they already had their lunch a little earlier. They were following a path, climbing up the mountain into the woods, with treetops thick enough to hide the sun from time to time.

They were entering a bushier area of the forest when a cackling sound stopped them in their tracks. Both the young adults were standing still, listening carefully. It was obviously not produced by a mutant, but by now, any unusual sound was raising survivor's awareness. As they were standing there, Gavin turned around to look at the raven-haired girl behind him. Even though they were chit chatting here and there through the breaks they were regularly taking, in a situation of potential danger, all the communication would happen through their eyes. The amber of the man's irises met the vibrant green of Tennessee's eyes. Neither of them moved until they heard the sound again. 

It was a series of brief cackles, sounding like a dry bamboo stick knocking on a rocky surface. Both the young adults turned their heads in the direction the noise was apparently coming from. It seemed to come from a tall, luxuriant bush on the side of the narrow and gravely dirt road they were walking on. Tennessee and Gavin looked at the bush, then at each other again, a puzzled look on their faces. A few seconds later, they made their way towards the bush, as if they were moved by the same brain, walking on the tip of the toes.

Gavin cautiously pushed the branches out of the way, slowly searching the shrub and waiting for the noise to be heard again. He was about halfway through the branches when something, seemingly a little deeper into the bush, cackled again.

Almost certain it wasn't a threat, the man pushed the last branches away, Tennessee standing on her toes as she tried to see what was happening over his shoulder. That's how they discovered, at the bottom of the small tree, nestled between the roots, a medium-sized black bird with a full-body, a round head and straight bill. 

Its feathers shone a glossy black with a purple sheen on the head grading to blue-green iridescence on its body. It was looking at the two young adults with its piercing gaze, the two round eyes glowing from their bright yellow shades. The bird's body looked quite round since it puffed its feathers to their maximum to look bigger, more threatening to the creatures that were trespassing on its hideout. 

Its thick based beak opened and closed to the rhythm of its nervous cackles. It hopped up and down a few times on its long stick-like legs but quickly stopped and sat down, visibly out of breath. The poor bird's eyes seemed hazy despite the bright yellow of its irises. One of its wings was resting on a weird angle, probably broken. Who knows since when it was hiding in there, injured, with very little chance to survive? The little thing was visibly quite weak already, so it must've been at least a few days. 

Gavin knelt by the bush, taking a closer look at the poor bird. Suddenly, the little ball of black feathers got up on its feet, cackling and jumping up and down again, ready to fight for its life at least a little more. Unfortunately, the small black bird quickly got tired again and fell. This time, however, the poor creature laid on its side, breathing heavily again.

Tennessee pursed her pretty raspberry lips, an uneasy look on her face. She had always been quite fond of animals, from the small rodents to the big grass eaters on hooves, without excluding cats, dogs, birds and reptiles. She always liked them way more than she ever liked her own species. Besides her love for animals, the raven-haired girl was also extremely empathetic and compassionate, she just avoided to show it, at all cost, feeling safer behind her rough exterior. She crossed an arm in front of her, wrapping her fingers around her other arm as she stood behind Gavin, completely silent. It was a rare occurrence. Looking at the poor bird, struggling, grasping on life despite his exhaustion and his injuries, was breaking her heart.

\- " Maybe... We should put it out of its misery. It's suffering in vain and leaving it like that would be cruel," she said.

The girl's voice trembled a little, but it was too subtle for Gavin to notice. His amber gaze was focused on the bird anyway. Surprisingly, the little one got back up on its feet, cackling even louder and flapping its sane wing with anger. Seems like that bird was a feisty one. The man in front of it chuckled as the bird's attitude reminded him of someone. Someone that wasn't that far away... He turned his head around, looking at Tennessee with a smile on his face, amused at the bird's reaction.

\- "I think that with a little help, it'll get better," Gavin replied in a soft tone.

The girl's eyes opened wide from the surprise this answer brought to her. The arm she previously placed in front of her vividly flew back to her side, placing her clenched fist on her hip with an annoyed click of her tongue.

\- "Are you fucking serious!?" she asked in disbelief, unable to hide the tempestuous inflections of her voice, "We are fighting every day to make it to the next and we should nurse a dying bird back to health? How the fuck are we supposed to do that!"

Tennessee took a short pause, taking a deep breath in and closing her eyes for a few seconds. She let out an irritated sigh as she opened her eyes again, locking the two bright aventurine gems of her gaze on the man.

\- "Do you even know how to take care of a bird?" said the girl with a high level of sarcasm in her voice.

= "Yeah, I've taken care of plenty," Gavin answered, unfazed, completely focused on the little bird.

It was still fighting to pretend it was fine, cackling like crazy even though its battle seemed to be lost already. It would probably be dead by tomorrow night if the duo wasn't rescuing it. The pretty raven-haired girl stayed silent for a while as Gavin slowly and progressively reached it out a hand to the bird. It took a minute or two, but their feathered friend gradually calmed down, appeased by the reassuring aura the man's presence created around them. Tennessee could feel it too. She sighed as her shoulders dropped, her pretty face recovering a softer appearance.

\- "All right, all right," she said, " But you're feeding it! And don't you dare to ask for my seeds."

After Gavin discovered her Evol, he also got to know she was keeping a mason jar at the bottom of her backpack, filled with so many seeds it was probably containing a whole forest of different plants. Most of them were producing plants that could feed them, of course, like fruit and vegetables, but there were also flowers and small trees. Tennessee had been keeping them for emergencies, like when the food supplies were critically low with no food to find for miles around. 

She had also started to grow fresh produce, like apples, oranges, carrots and other vegetables and fruits belonging to the food category from time to time. The first time the gorgeous girl handed him an orange, Gavin had been smiling for hours, enjoying the feeling, the taste and the smell of the fruit.

However, even though she would be digging into her treasured seeds anytime for them, she wasn't exactly ready to sacrifice any of it to the little blackbird despite her love for animals. The ex-police officer shrugged his shoulders, without a single look for the raven-haired girl behind him. He was perfectly able to feed the bird without Tennessee's precious seeds. 

After a few minutes, Gavin was finally able to touch the bird without having the little one cackling or trying to bite him. He gently stroked the side of its face and scratched the back of its neck. The bird seemed unsure at first, but it quickly ended up chirping happily and wearily hopped in Gavin's hand. That's it. The bird was coming with them. The young woman rolled her eyes then stated the obvious problem they would soon be encountering.

\- "And how are you going to carry your new friend?"

It was only then that Gavin turned around, the surprise in his golden eyes answering before the words came out. He hadn't thought of it yet. Tennessee chuckled, a little too proud she caught the man off guard about his rescue project. She took her backpack off her shoulders and put it on the ground in front of her. She dug through her belongings for a minute and finally took a long scarf out. The pretty girl walked up to Gavin and his feathered friend, the latter resuming his infernal cackling the very moment she got close to them.

\- "Oh shut up, chicken wings. I'm building your new apartment," she said, visibly annoyed by the bird's behaviour toward her.

\- "I don't think you'll win him over with such a lovely nickname," Gavin replied, amused.

\- "It's a he now? Anyway, I couldn't care less..."

The girl didn't give the slightest look at the bird as she wrapped the scarf around the man's torso. It was tight but despite the fact he was wearing his bulletproof vests, she managed to fix it in some way that created a small pouch where their little friend could rest while Gavin would keep his hands free. Tennessee then took out a new piece of cloth, previously ripped off an old shirt somewhere, and placed it into the pouch to ensure the bird's comfort. Once she was done, Gavin wrapped its injured wing with expert moves. It was now ready to enjoy its new nest.

\- "That looks quite comfortable, don't you think?" Gavin said to the black-feathered ball, "Wanna go in?"

The young woman winced in disdain and backed off as the bird chirped again, visibly at ease now. Once it was comfortably installed, Gavin waited for his partner to put her backpack back on her shoulders and they resumed walking. That's all they could do anyway. They needed a better place to set their camp for the night than this narrow path with a ledge on one side and a sea of trees on the other.

\---- ---- ---- ----

Later that afternoon, Tennessee randomly asked:

\- "Do you think it would let me carry it for a little while?"

\- "You sure you wanna do that?" Gavin asked as an answer, "You weren't exactly nice to it earlier."

The pretty raven-haired girl puffed her cheeks and crossed her arms over her stomach, a discrete line of red running across her face. 

\- "Well it wasn't much nicer to me!" she retorted, "But if we need to share the same space for a few weeks, one of us has to be the smart one and make the first move", she said, "I don't want it to keep cackling at me like it did until now. That little bitch throws a tantrum every time I get a little closer to it and I know you'd have it sleeping in the tent with us. I don't mind but that single-unit-chicken-nugget isn't going to ruin the very few hours of sleep I get at night."

Gavin suppressed his laugh as much as he could. Her reasoning made sense, but he knew her well enough now to tell she just wanted to take care of it too now that the decision had been taken. That's something he liked about the wild young woman. When they were agreeing on something, even when it wasn't exactly what she wanted at first, Tennessee would stick to it and do her best. She would put the required efforts into it as long as they would discuss the matter and make decisions together. She may be stubborn and opinionated, but she was also smart and reasonable. When it made sense, you actually had a chance to convince her, no matter how unlikely it seemed. 

A shallow smile on his face, Gavin untied the scarf and was pleasantly surprised to see that Tennessee tied it in a way that was preserving the pouch the bird was in, even when they were untying the rest of it. When he said she was a smart one… 

The man placed the scarf on the girl, exactly as she did for him earlier. The bird protested loudly but quickly calmed down. The setup was actually more comfortable on the young woman than it was on Gavin. It was also easier to tie around her chest and the black-feathered ball rested on her breast, in a cozier angle. The bird was trying to understand what was happening, looking at both the young adults, when Gavin took a step back. It was about to throw another of its cackling tantrum but it realized how pleasant and comfortable it was. The pretty raven-haired girl was also acting exactly like its friend now, reassuring it some more. The bird wiggled its feathered butt then nestled into the fabric and lowered its head, resting some more.

Both surprised by the black bird's compliance and chuckling quietly, the two partners resumed walking again, but Tennessee remained distracted for a minute, detailing the bandage Gavin did on their feathered friend earlier. It was gently but nicely wrapped around its broken wing, holding it in the right position for it to heal correctly. It was probably true that he took care of a few birds before… The girl's mind was wandering everywhere when a gentle cooing sound brought her attention back on the bird.

It was looking at her with the same expression it looked at Gavin earlier, with his eyes half-closed, a little like a cat would look at a human it liked. A smile lit up the young woman's face and, to the ex-police officer's great surprise, cooed back at the bird in a soft tone. 

Puzzled by the sound, their new friend looked back at her as it tilted its head on the side. Tennessee never noticed the warm amber gaze lingering on her as she was merrily interacting with the small blackbird. Then, as if a light-bulb suddenly cast light upon her thoughts, the pretty raven-haired girl looked up at Gavin. 

\- "Do you know what kind of bird it is?" she asked, a curious look on her face.

That was another thing about Tennessee. She liked to learn. She already got him to teach her, in detail, every survival technique he could. Every new knowledge she could get a grasp on would immediately trigger that bright spark of light in her beautiful sage green eyes. She was never tired of learning, whatever the subject was, and this one seemed particularly interesting for her. 

\- "I'm not sure," Gavin answered, "I think it might be a Brewer's blackbird or a Rusty blackbird, but it could also be a Boat-tailed Grackle."

\- "What's the difference between all these birds?"

\- "Uh… The Brewer's and the Rusty blackbirds are pretty similar in size, but I think the Brewer's looks fluffier and fat while the Rusty has bolder eyes. And the Grackle would be a little bigger if I remember right."

Tennessee looked at the bird on her chest attentively. It was roundish for sure, but what was it?

\- "Hmm… Are you fat?" she asked the bird.

The bird cackled as if it was offended by the girl's question. Tennessee smiled and looked at the man a few steps before her, that cheeky expression she wore so well on her face. 

\- "I think that means 'no'," she chuckled as she ran a finger on the bird's head.

Surprisingly, the little feathered creature seemed to enjoy the caress and tilted its head on the side, cooing quietly. Gavin smiled discreetly. For a girl that wasn't quite happy to take the bird in earlier, she looked like she was fond of it in the end. And the bird seemed to appreciate the young woman just as much, despite the fact it had been hostile to her previously. 

\- "Not a Brewer's Blackbird then,"Tennessee added as they kept walking.

For hours, all he heard was the happy chirping of the bird and the jolly whistles the pretty raven-haired girl used as answers. Gavin often looked over his shoulder to catch a glimpse of these two, progressively bonding over their melodic conversations. Tennessee would barely hold a discussion when they were walking, just the two of them. She talked on breaks and in the evening, but the rest of the time, she was as silent as the grave.

However, the ex-police officer couldn't help but think her actual behaviour was unexpectedly cute. Under her rough exterior and rude manners was a loving heart that was, unfortunately, afraid to love and to be loved. It's only hours later, when it was almost time to seriously search for a campsite, that the girl's voice formed real words again.

\- "Hey, BirdBoy," she said, "Did you name it yet?"

Guessing she was talking about the bird, Gavin turned away to look at the girl. 

\- "Not really," he replied, "I've just been calling it 'little bird'."

Tennessee seemed to be thinking for a while, looking at the bird she was carrying attentively.

\- "Well, your name is Ringo then!

The bird seemed to agree, cackling happily and nestling further into the pouch. A tender smile, hidden at the corner or her delightful mouth, lit up her features. Her entire face suddenly looked softer. It almost took Gavin aback as she seemed even more beautiful than she already was into his eyes. And the man already thought highly of her… He got a hold of his wandering mind and shook his head a little. 

\- "Free as a bird, it's the next best thing to be," he said, keeping his warm amber gaze on the young woman.

Tennessee caught Gavin's discrete smile of amusement at the corner of her eye, and her tender expression turned into an impish look. It was that look she wore every time she felt like teasing him some more. When she looked at him like that, her delicate frame and fine features, gave him the impression he was looking at a beautiful, graceful but playful elf, out of the woods to pull a trick on him… or maybe she already cast her spell? Whatever that girl did to him, his heart skipped a beat in front of the dimple appearing at the corner of her mouth, on her right cheek, every time she smiled.

\- "Not exactly," she chuckled.

The pretty raven-haired girl laid her brilliant aventurine gaze on the bird nestled against her. She knew Gavin recognized the band she referred to when she named their feathered friend, even though he didn't say it. He purposely quoted a different song than the one she thought of and it pleased her musician soul a lot more than what she was ready to admit. And while she knew he guessed right, Gavin knew she understood what he wanted her to. 

They had been on the same wavelengths recently, although neither of them noticed how their bond was becoming deeper and growing stronger. The two young adults formed a good team. A single glance at the other would tell their partner exactly what they were thinking or planning to do. They would stop on a single motion, to set their camp or to listen to the noise that alerted them. 

Tennessee only felt this way with a very few people through her life: her bandmates. Before and after they died in all this mess, she was already convinced she would never experience that kind of bond ever again. So convinced she would probably never admit that she and Gavin had something solid, despite all she did to them to keep their distances. There were no romantic or sweet feelings involved, but the ex-police officer had won something big: Her trust. And that was quite seemingly leading them to friendship, a strong and unconditional friendship.

\---- ---- ---- ----

They set their camp up early. Even though their new team member was quite comfortably installed, the travel was still taking its toll on the poor bird. The first thing they set out was the tent. Tennessee unrolled their sleeping bags then crafted a nest for Ringo with her blanket. If she was cold that night, she would still have Gavin… Her own mind denying she just thought about it, the pretty raven-haired girl gave a handful of the seeds she kept in her bag to the little blackbird, despite what she said earlier. She placed them by their feathered friend, into the makeshift nest, and crawled out of the tent to help Gavin with what was left of their meal's preparation. 

With their stomachs full, they took the extra time their early set up allowed them to relax by the fire. It was something they rarely had the time and the energy to do so. The days they spent walking were exhausting and their routine would usually be as short as setting their camp, eating, and going to bed. The next day would be exactly the same. This little extra time was quite appreciated since otherwise, they had no chances to unwind. Well, besides the time they spent having sex, which could be added to their routine.

They spent that time side by side, seated on the huge trunk of a recently fallen tree. Gavin's arm was passed behind Tennessee and his back was slightly leaned backward. Meanwhile, the girl had both hands on each side of her hips, on the trunk, and her upper body was bending forward a tiny bit, just enough to allow her partner to keep his arm behind her without making the situation awkward. However, she was also discretely leaning on the side a, closing the distance between their shoulders, just enough to feel Gavin's warmth. 

They just sat there, enjoying a moment when they weren't fighting for their lives or trying to save the world. And it felt good. It felt good to put everything on pause for a moment. It felt good to simply be there, in the silence of the night, and take the time to be conscious of themselves. It felt good not to be alone and share this extremely rare moment of peace with someone they trusted. 

Tennessee was the first to crawl back into the tent. As always, she took a few pieces of her clothes off to be comfortable during the night. Their tent was made for the lowest temperatures and it kept the warmth in more than she would've ever imagined. She would have been perfectly comfortable, with all her clothes on, if she had been the only one sleeping in there. She discovered soon enough after she added the sexual side of their partnership into the equation, that Gavin wasn't just 'hot' aesthetically speaking. He was also a real furnace. The heat his body produced was quite impressive and when Tennessee thought she would still experience some fresh nights, but not cold nights like before, she was surprised to feel so hot she had to remove most of her clothes and, sometimes, roll away from the man and his scorching hot skin.

The young woman took her coat, leggings and woollen dress off. The shirt was enough to keep her warm and her legs were always too hot in this god damned sleeping bag. Without waiting for him to join her into the tent, Tennessee slipped into Gavin's sleeping bag, without an ounce of shame. That's what she was doing on the coldest nights and, even though he was quite surprised the first few times, Gavin perfectly knew her game by now. He even came up with a nickname for her along the way. 

When he entered the tent, the ex-police officer looked at the pretty girl into his sleeping bag and chuckled.

\- "Turning yourself into a Heat Leach tonight again?" He said as he removed his coat.

Tennessee rolled on her side, her usual impish smile deliciously curving her lips. Sometimes, the young man couldn't understand how she could be so cheeky and annoying, but also so sexy and dangerously appealing at the same time. Sometimes, he could swear he was simply going completely insane.

\- "Oh, stop being like that," she replied with a seductive, but mischievous voice, "You like it. And you know I won't take 'no' for an answer anyway," the girl added with a playful wink.

\- "I know," he said with a peal of soft laughter in his voice, "But it doesn't keep you from being a heat leach," the man added, taking off his bulletproof vest.

His long-sleeved shirt followed quickly, soon joined by his pants, leaving him with his isothermal T-shirt and the boxer briefs he picked up at the clothes store. That's how he got used to sleeping over time, as Tennessee's presence gave him the illusion of a more normal life. It was strangely helping him to rest better at night where the soldier's lifestyle drained him, day after day, on both physical and mental levels.

Gavin took place in the sleeping bag with the gorgeous young woman. What could be more comfortable than holding such a pretty girl through the night? It was something she was rarely allowing him. Gavin had already noticed how Tennessee would fall asleep in his arms on the nights where they were having sex, and be out of reach in any other circumstances. So if the girl wanted to share his sleeping bag, whatever her reasons were, the ex-police officer would let her do so. Tennessee pressed her back tightly against Gavin's chest and he wrapped his arm around her waist, the other folded under the coat he used as a pillow. Like their small feathered friend, the two young adults were both fast asleep. 

\---- ---- ---- ----

They had been sleeping peacefully for a few hours when Gavin woke up, a noise seemingly disturbing his sleep. Ringo was emitting some quiet cackles, which also sounded quite unhappy. The ex-police officer rolled away from the pretty girl, peacefully sleeping in his arms, and pushed himself up on his elbows to pull himself towards the bird. If he wasn't that close, Gavin couldn't even see the outline of the little blackbird into the darkness of the night. 

The moonlight unexpectedly provided a soft, silver light that allowed the ex-police officer to fully evaluate their feathered friend's situation. Ringo somehow misplaced his broken wing after he partially undid his bandage.

\- "Oh, come here buddy," Gavin whispered, "I'll fix that for you."

He cautiously wrapped the wing again and scratched the bird's neck as a reward for staying put as he did. Ringo cooed softly, visibly comfortable again now that his wing was back into the right position. 

\- "Alright, you're all set," the man said as he scooted over Tennessee to take his place back into the sleeping bag, "Let's go back to sleep now. We have another long day waiting for us tomorrow."

Gavin placed his arm back over the young woman's waist, pulling her a bit closer before he hid his face in the crook of her neck. As his hand rested on her stomach, the ex-police officer sighed peacefully, ready to let himself fall back into a tranquil slumber and enjoy the additional well-being the girl's presence into his arms provided him for the moment. 

However, at the very moment where he felt his mind falling into the nothingness of his usual dreamless nights, Tennessee moved against him, groaning softly as she pressed herself against him even more. Gavin couldn't tell if she was awake or not, so he stayed still, hoping he didn't disturb the girl's sleep. She needed it. If he felt tired when they stopped for the night, the heaviness of the days was hitting harder for the pretty raven-haired girl.

The ex-police officer waited for the answer he wanted since Tennessee was sure to tell him if he woke her up in the middle of the night, but nothing moved or made any sounds. He was about to let out a sigh of relief when he felt the gorgeous young woman's fine and delicate fingers around his wrist. Without a single word, she slid his hand under her shirt, higher on her stomach. Tennessee then laced her fingers with his, as his palm brushed the soft skin of her abdomen, and slowly brought it up to her breast. His hand naturally cupped the round and soft mound of flesh, a shiver running down his spine as he realized once more how their bodies perfectly matched each other. 

It was apparently not enough since the girl pressed his hand harder on her breast. Gavin gulped and felt the first trickles of desire pulsing into his lower abdomen and setting his skin on fire. This simple pressure on her skin, this silent request for a more intimate contact was enough to light a fire into him that only Tennessee seemed to know how to summon. When she felt the man's forming erection behind her thigh, a discrete smile appeared on her delicious raspberry red lips. A smile Gavin never noticed, distracted by the burning sensation on his cheeks and the bit of shame he felt about this...situation. 

The pretty raven-haired girl backed into him some more, feeling his hardening cock on her rear. If her intentions weren't clear enough now, what would be? The next step would be the equivalent of an invitation written in golden letters. Unfortunately, Gavin didn't move at all. 

It turned out that something was bothering the young man enough to keep him from the desire that gradually clouded his mind. Gavin suddenly pulled away, to the girl's great surprise, as he remembered that detail he simply couldn't put aside. That small, black and feathered details. 

\- "W-Wait!" he said in a low voice.

The ex-police officer pulled his hand away from Tennessee's gorgeous body and turned around to face the little bird, serenely resting in the nest the girl made for him earlier. Unexpectedly, Ringo looked up at him, darting his two small and round, but as bright as the scorching sun, yellow eyes straight on the man. Gavin had a second of hesitation and briefly stopped to move. A new strike of red flushed his cheeks as he reached for his bulletproof vest.

\- "Yeah… No," he said, "That's exactly why I'm coming for buddy."

Gavin heard the rustling of the sleeping bag as Tennessee rolled around, confused about what her friend was doing. She saw the man using his vest to create a 'frame' around the bird's nest and her woollen dress to cover the remaining openings that faced them. The young woman couldn't help but laugh quietly when she saw the tiny makeshift tent Gavin crafted for their feathered friend, on the obvious purpose to keep Ringo to stare at them while they… Ahem.

\- "Are you serious?" she giggled.

Gavin looked at her and shrugged his shoulders, a shy smile on his handsome face. It was really unlike her, but Tennessee thought it was utterly cute… and she was only more eager to resume what they previously started. She rolled back into her initial position to free the man's place, but she turned her back to him anyway. Gavin scooted over and laid behind her once more, wrapping his arm around her delicate and gorgeous body. 

Without wasting any more time, Tennessee brought his hand exactly where it was before they parted: her breast. The ex-police officer wasn't surprised about the girl's attitude, but he was still a bit destabilized by how natural touching her and having sex with her had become. It was clearly implied, but neither of them felt the slightest bit of uneasiness. Well, besides the first few seconds where Gavin seemed restless. However, his mind was at peace now that he knew there wouldn't be any audience to their nocturnal activities.

He was still not initiating anything, and Tennessee became impatient. Wasn't he at ease now that he made sure Ringo wouldn't be peeping at them? It seemed like she would need to encourage him some more. Without letting go of the hand cupping her breast, the beautiful raven-haired woman grabbed the arm Gavin folded under his head and brought it down. She got ahold of his hand and brought it to her luscious lips, lasciviously kissing each of the ex-police officer's fingers, one after the other. 

The girl kept going, kissing the palm of his hand and then his wrist. Her breath lingering on his skin drew a long shiver of lust out of him. The young woman's lips brushing the inside of Gavin's arm, she sultrily whispered:

\- "It's okay, you know. If you want it, just tell me."

Matching this second hand to the one under her shirt, the pretty raven-haired girl switched their position to treat them both with a rain of kisses. However, once she was done, Gavin's hand wouldn't go back under the young woman's shirt. Tennessee didn't bring his hand back under the tight fabric that covered her chest. Instead, she slowly ran it over the curves of her upper body, all the way down the hemline of her underwear. She only let go of him when the tip of his fingers slipped under the elastic band of the undergarment. She needed to know if he wanted to have sex with her or not! After all, he didn't answer what she told him moments ago or manifested any enthusiasm until now, and an erection wasn't a valid answer.

That was his chance to make a move or back off. Gavin's breath grew shorter and his entire body shuddered against her. His mouth felt dry and he swallowed difficultly, but he slipped his hand further under the thin fabric of her underwear. The man lightly traced the outline of her folds with the tip of his fingers, pressing her harder against him. His cheeks and ears were bright red and his entire skin felt like it was on fire. All he could hear was the sound of his own heart, pounding in his chest.

Gavin couldn't tell if his embarrassment came from the fact he manifested his desire for the girl first or if he was simply unable to get used to these situations in the end, no matter how naturally they seemed to happen. Even though this kind of nocturnal embrace was a regular activity now, he still had some trouble accepting his yearning for the gorgeous young woman in his arms. Gavin hid his face into the crook of her neck and took a deep breath… and that's all he needed. Tennessee's floral scent washed his uneasiness away, throwing his mind into a sea of desire and passion. 

He placed a few kisses on the soft and sensitive skin under her ear, then pulled her shirt all the way up over her breast as he pressed his hand around the round and warm mound of flesh she placed between his fingers earlier. His other hand parted her labia with a finger and let it run along the length of her slit, slowly passing over the raven-haired girl's clitoris on his way down her folds. 

Just like he did that night, where a simple kiss led them into one of the most intense 'sessions' they had until now, Gavin took his time, getting to know this part of Tennessee's body like the back of his hand. Everything about her was simply delicious to him. It was like if every single line of her body had been drawn to please him. 

Gavin kept holding the girl tightly against him, the kisses in her neck and shoulders growing hungrier with every second that passed by. He softly bit on that spot, just under her jaw, that he knew was more sensitive as he teased Tennessee's entrance with his middle finger, drawing a long, soft and lascivious complaint of impatience out of her. She tipped her head back, offering more skin for the ex-police officer to kiss – or bite – and threw her arm back, arching herself to grab a handful of his silken chestnut hair. 

Her fingers disappeared into the man's soft locks of hair as he slid his finger into the warmth of her body. She sighed, relieved for a second but immediately longing for more. Gavin groaned softly into her neck, then moved his finger inside her, intentionally allowing his palm to rub on her clit with every movement he made. He moved slowly at first, but as Tennessee's excitement started to drip on his hand, the ex-police officer picked up the pace, drawing new sighs and quiet moans out of her. 

The young woman's cheeks were coloured with a discrete but enticing shade of pink and her delicious raspberry red lips were slightly parted. With her eyes closed, her thick eyelashes fluttered on her cheekbones as her breath got shorter and her moans grew louder. Her partner inserted a second finger into her and the girl softly gasped, arching her back some more to allow the man to kiss his way down to her breast. She could feel the pleasure bubbling up inside her with every new caress from Gavin. 

The pretty girl bit her lower lip, trying to repress another moan even though she knew, with that familiar warmth growing in her stomach, that she would be hitting her release soon. She tugged on the ex-police officer's hair and, as if he knew exactly what it meant, Gavin slowed down the rhythm at which his fingers rubbed inside her. The gorgeous young woman uttered her displeasure quite loudly, opening her eyes to lay her hazy, but always so bright and vivid sage green gaze on him.

\- "I didn't tell you to stop," she whined in a low voice, slightly out of breath.

Gavin chuckled softly. He wasn't impressed by her attitude anymore. It only brought some… spice to the dynamic of their team. Brushing the tip of his fingers over the pink flesh of her folds, the man captured one of her nipples between his lips. If she thought he would stop there, she was wrong. His erection, confined to the fabric of his boxer briefs, was nearly unbearable, his desire reaching heights he never thought he'd feel someday. However, the man was obsessed with one thing, and one thing only: Tennessee's enjoyment. He didn't want to rush anything. Gavin wanted to take his time and drive the wild raven-haired girl as crazy as possible.

He liked the way she was trying to hold back her moans but always ended up vocalizing her pleasure loudly. Her partner kept teasing her hole a little as he sucked on the pink nub of flesh between his lips, swirling his tongue around it from time to time. When he was finally satisfied with the tension he could feel in the girl's body, Gavin slid her underwear, soaked with the fluids generated by her excitement, down her thighs then all the way down her perfectly shaped legs until he completely removed them from her and nonchalantly tossed them on the side.

Tennessee moved her hand down from the man's hair to his neck, leaving a soft caress along his jawbone as he turned his upper body away from her. The young woman's hand fell on her chest as Gavin removed his shirt with way more eagerness than when he took off her underwear. His shirt gone somewhere by their side, the ex-police officer picked the mandatory square foil out of their designated pocket in the girl's backpack. If sex was any more important to him, this pocket would be on its way to become his favourite compartment of them all, even surpassing the one where Tennessee would hide candies from time to time. 

By the time he got the foil in hand, the pretty raven-haired girl laid on her back, just in time to peep at the handsome man by her side as he freed his fully erected cock from the confinement of his underwear to unroll the condom down his shaft after he gave himself a few strokes.

A discrete but cocky smile curving her lips upward, Tennessee rolled back on her side before Gavin had a chance to catch her as she was feasting her eyes on him. The young woman expected him to pin her down onto her back and steal a kiss from her, as he would usually do, but he took his place back behind her, in the same position he was in earlier. 

The man ran his hand up between her thighs instead and lifted her leg a little, just enough to line himself with her entrance, then sent her calf over his thigh, the crease of her knee resting on him as the rest of her limb was hanging behind him. Feeling the tip of Gavin's cock pressed against her hole, the girl shivered, eager to feel him inside her. He had a way to fill her up that left her completely satisfied every time.

Gavin pushed himself in and slowly made his way to the bottom of her body. The rhythm wasn't exactly what his body requested, but the long and lascivious sigh it drew from the gorgeous young woman was enough to wash the feeling of restraint of his mind. 

The ex-police officer slid a hand under her upper body and placed it back to its rightful emplacement on her breast as he pressed her back against his chest to leave a long trail of lustful kisses up her shoulder and neck. He nibbled at her earlobe as he finally started to move inside his voluptuous friend. With slow, sensual movements, Gavin reached the depths of the girl's body, almost backing his way out to bury himself back in with every new motion. He let out a strong but low growl at the way Tennessee felt around him. 

Gavin wanted to keep this 'session' to a slow and sensual rhythm since it was rarely the case, but it was obvious now that it would probably be impossible. The softness of her skin, her warmth, her moans...It lit a fire up in his abdomen, just like every other time their bodies were one. Gavin thrusted harder into her and the pretty raven-haired girl arched her back again. Between her moans and sighs, Tennessee desperately searched for more of her partner's body to hold onto as she slipped into a swirl of the most intense sensations she experienced. 

She ended up with her fingers tangled into Gavin's hair, her mouth agape and a familiar pressure building inside her. Their blood was boiling in their veins, passion consuming them on thrust at the time. The man's rhythm felt good but the young woman was always yearning for more of him. The hand on her breast suddenly ran up her chest, stopping over her throat. Gavin slowed down and gently turned her face to him. Their breaths mingled, synchronized as they were becoming one, their lips almost touching.

The ex-police officer gradually stopped his movements and rested his forehead on her temple, beads of sweat clinging to his hair. A few seconds went by, both the young adults shortly catching their breaths until Tennessee broke the enchanting melody of their racing hearts.

\- "Harder..." she whispered in a breathy, hoarse voice.

Gavin pushed himself up a little higher on his elbow, locking his amber gaze with the sparkling aventurine stones the girl had for eyes. He answered a few seconds later with the same kind of concupiscent raspy voice.

\- "Earn it."

The man moved his hand from Tennessee's throat to brush the tip of his fingers on her fine and delicate jawline, inciting her to turn her face towards him some more. His lips softly caressed hers, as if he needed confirmation about what she said. Her answer didn't wait. In a heartbeat, Tennessee's luscious lips crossed the remaining space between them and crashed on Gavin's, pulling him into a deep and passionate kiss. He welcomed the girl's tongue into his mouth as it shyly pushed on the barrier of his teeth. 

A strong burst of passion rose from his chest and he resumed his movements, thrusting harder, faster and deeper inside her. He growled and grunted against her lips, each sound coming from deep within his body to roll into his throat. As his hips slammed against her buttocks, the beast Gavin kept caged deep down inside him shortly escaped his control and he bit on the gorgeous young woman's lower lip. It drew a small gasp of surprise out of her. Tennessee was so far gone, lost into the pleasure she felt at the sensation of his thick length hitting deep within her body, that she wouldn't have noticed the bite without the crimson pearl that appeared on her lips when the man shortly freed them as he gasped for air, while a metallic taste spread into her mouth. 

She took the opportunity to catch her breath and rested her head against Gavin's jaw. He was thrusting so hard, so fast, and so deep inside her that she couldn't keep kissing him. And the way he rubbed inside her...The pretty raven-haired girl closed her eyes shut, carried away by the jolts of pleasure pulsing through her entire body. She was so close to her release…

The ex-police officer gave one harder thrust into her and Tennessee's voice rose into the air, louder, sexier … He felt her fingers clenching tighter on his hair, but Gavin couldn't take his eyes off the expression on the young woman's gorgeous face. He could read through her fine features that her second orgasm would hit with a strength she rarely experienced. All she could feel outside the ecstasy trickling through her veins was Gavin's skin on hers, his presence inside her. All she could hear was the frantic beating of their hearts, unable to tell which one was hers.

Her mind was completely blank. The man couldn't be dreaming of a better canvas for the release Tennessee was about to hit. All the colours, scents and shivers would remain, carved into her subconscious in their most brilliant radiance. The girl's cries of pure pleasure filled Gavin's ears, propelling himself into a final outburst of passion. 

The young woman arched her back to its maximum and tugged on the ex-police officer's hair once more before the orgasm bubbling inside her finally sent its effusion of sheer blissfulness through her entire being. Her body shivered and tightened around Gavin, the sensation of her warmth squeezing on him yanking a low, but strong growl out of him. He could feel every twitch of her body, each shiver running on her skin as he rode her through her release. Feeling her body connected to his as it was shaken up by the pleasure she felt because of him would always throw Gavin over the edge.

A few wild, animalistic thrusts after the girl's loud exclamations of ecstasy turned into short, quieter gasps and moans as she passed the peak of her climax, the man reached his limit and filled the condom with his seed. Another loud growl slipped through his lips as his thrusts became erratic, gradually slowing down until he buried himself deep within Tennessee's beautiful body one last time. 

Gavin hid his face into the crook of her neck and let go of the leg he held up over his the entire time. Out of breath, he placed soft kisses on the sweat-covered skin of her shoulders as the girl's body went limp into his arms. The ex-police officer let out a long sigh of satisfaction, relieved from any tension. Their chests heaved and sank in rhythm with their breaths for a while to get a hold of themselves.

Gavin was the first to emerge from the haze of his mind and squeezed the gorgeous young woman against him, his arms already wrapped around her. Tennessee was still out of when he raised his head to look at her. His beautiful golden irises had a hint of tenderness in them when the man gently ran his hand up from her thigh up to her shoulder. Gavin cupped the pretty girl's cheek into his palm and brushed, brushing his thumb over her pink-coloured skin. 

He couldn't help but think she was, without a doubt, one, if not the prettiest creature he ever met. He wasn't realizing it yet, but every time they were connecting somehow, through their confidences or the union of their bodies, Tennessee was only becoming prettier in his eyes. Gavin placed a gentle kiss at the corner of her delightful lips, still red and swollen from their passionate embrace, and pressed his forehead on hers for a few seconds. Then, he slowly pulled away from her, rolling over to remove the condom from himself and discard it according to his habits.

Meanwhile, a long shiver shook Tennessee's body as she felt the man's presence inside her going away. It was almost as if all the warmth she felt while he was connected to her had been taken away at the same time. She curled up, wrapping her own arms around herself as Gavin placed the used and tied up preservative in the plastic bag he kept in a pocket of his backpack for further disposal. Their supplies were still in the girl's backpack, but he was the one managing condoms logistically most of the time. It's not because society crumbled down that they should be throwing anything anywhere! They weren't pigs. Gavin rolled the plastic bag up into his temporary disposal compartment then put his underwear back on.

This being done, he hugged Tennessee from behind once more, pressing his lips on her shoulder. She seemed tense but she quickly relaxed as he placed his arm over her waist. Spooning like this was their usual position when the young woman was tolerating a bit of proximity and Gavin felt her trembling as he took his place back behind her. 

One of his legs between hers, he squeezed her tighter against him for a minute, pulling her shirt back down. The young woman had developed a habit out of falling asleep quite fast after their nocturnal 'work out'. He couldn't tell if she was doing it on purpose or not, but Tennessee would usually let him hold her through the night after they had sex, or if she was cold, and he wouldn't complain. The proximity he needed from her wasn't induced by romantic feelings or emotional attachment. It was simply reassuring and comfortable to both of them, despite what the girl said about it. After over a year spent on their own, feeling someone's presence as they were falling asleep was an opportunity neither of them wanted to pass by in the end. Life became so stressful with the dawning of humanity… if they could relieve themselves of some tension in such a simple way, it would be stupid not to. 

Surprisingly, Tennessee didn't seem to be asleep yet, but she didn't move a single bit after he took her back into his arms, not even to cover her lower half, still completely naked. 

\- "Aren't you cold?" Gavin softly asked.

\- "Hmm?" she uttered as she turned her face to him. "Ah. No, I'm not. It's not that bad. I'm fine."

The pretty raven-haired girl could feel his breath, peaceful and warm, in her neck and on her shoulder, but she couldn't feel how he pursed his lips together at that moment. A little less than two weeks ago, he wouldn't have been thinking about saying what was on his mind right now. But their bond had changed recently and Tennessee's rudeness wasn't as impressive as it was before. 

\- "Are you going to stay like that?" he said with the same calm and soft tone, to which was added a bit of amusement.

\- "What, is it bothering you?" she replied, "Aren't you satisfied yet?"

Gavin could see the expression on her face, but he clearly heard that cheeky smile she wore so well into her voice, just as if he had her in front of him. He was perfectly picturing that impish sparkle into her eyes that must have scared men away so easily back then. It made Gavin a bit nervous at first, but despite blushing a little every once in a while, it wasn't doing much anymore. Speaking of which, the ex-police officer, had a hint of red on the tip of his ears when he answered:

\- "N-No, it's not that," he said, "I'm just worried you'll get cold."

Tennessee picked her panties laying nearby with a pinch at a corner and rolled over to face him. Their noses brushed against each other and the girl locked her sparkling aventurine eyes into his, half a smile on her face.

\- "Well, I'm not putting these back on 'til the morning sweetie."

As she sultrily gave him her answer, she dropped the soaked underwear she just picked into the hand Gavin mechanically handed to her. The fabric was still saturated with the juices he drew out of her a little earlier. However, it was also cold now that they've been left on the side for a while. No wonder she wasn't intending to put them back on yet. The young woman was probably also hoping to walk by any kind of clothes store soon. Unfortunately, it was highly improbable.

The man quickly put the panties aside, promising himself he would find a place for her to wash them as soon as possible, and glared at the girl for pulling that nasty trick on him. All he got from her was an implicit wink before she snuggled up against him, resting her head on his shoulder. Gavin let out an exasperated sigh but tried to hide the amused smile that wanted to appear on his face as he wrapped his arms back around her. Tennessee naturally placed her hand on his chest, distractedly stroking her collarbone with her thumb.

\- "If you could hand me my dress though I could change into something a little more reasonable," she said.

As soon as Gavin stretched his arm on the side, a joyful series of cackles came out from under the dress the girl asked for. The two young adults looked at each other, dumbfounded, then started laughing. Both of them needed a second to remember Ringo was hiding under the woollen dress. The ex-police officer picked it up and gave it to the gorgeous young woman by his side. While she switched the shirt she wore for the dress, the man turned to the bird.

\- "Sorry buddy," he said as he scratched the bird's head, "We didn't mean to forget you under there.

Tennessee giggled next to him, a cocky grin curving her delightful raspberry lips upward.

\- "And who's fault is that?"

Gavin chuckled too, giving the raven-haired girl a quick look with a tacit smile on his face. They didn't need words to understand each other anymore. Petting Ringo a little more, the man took his place back by Tennessee's side. 

His sleeping bag got completely open in the action, but since the pretty raven-haired girl seemed quite tactile tonight, it was probably better that way. Their two bodies into the same closed sleeping bag would've generated way too much heat. As he thought about the logistics around their bedtime installation, Tennessee curled up against him as soon as he laid back next to her and wrapped one of her legs around him. She held him tightly and Gavin used the girl's sleeping bag to shield their bodies from the air around them as it was getting colder now that everything was peaceful and calm inside their tent. He nuzzled her hair, breathing in her amazing floral scent, then whispered:

\- "Goodnight."

\- "Goodnight," she replied, to his great surprise.

However, he wasn't allowed to think this any further since a long chirping sound came out from Ringo's nest. It really sounded like the bird was also wishing them a good night of rest.

\- "Yeah, sleep well too Ringo," Tennessee said with a smiling voice, making herself comfortable into the ex-police officer's arms before closing her eyes.

Gavin took a last long look at her, a tender smile on his lips. She was friendlier than he thought in the end. His thumb gently stroking the bare skin of her arm, the young adults were both fast asleep again. Safe. Satisfied. And maybe with their hearts a little lighter than they were before. 

  
  
  



	13. Early Hours Intermezzo

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello there! Here's an update after this loooooong break I needed to take in order to raise some kittens then get some rest. I hope you'll like it as much as I liked getting back to Gavin and Nessie <3

In the morning, a ray of light warmed Gavin's cheeks. The man slowly woke up, a pleasant warmth spreading on his skin. As always, he was the first awake. Usually, he would get up and start preparing their equipment for another long day of walking.

However, that morning, Gavin didn't feel like leaving the cocoon of comfort he was in with the raven-haired girl. She was still tightly wrapped in his arms, sound asleep, her back pressed against his chest and everything was peaceful around them. It felt good. So good that he thought about just staying there for the day. Just one day… it wouldn't be dramatic, right? It had been so long since the ex-police officer felt at peace like this. What a pleasant feeling… Gavin took a deep breath, filling his lungs with fresh morning air and Tennessee's scent. Her floral perfume, with a hint of sandalwood and lemongrass, added to his unexpected state of serenity.

Somewhat happy, the man squeezed the girl in a tighter embrace, nuzzling the shell of her ear and brushing his lips on the soft skin of her neck. He stayed like that for a while, simply enjoying the warmth of the girl's body against him, her deep, steady and peaceful breath in his ears, and the sun on his skin. It was one of the most perfect moments he had in years and Gavin suddenly wished he could stop time, at least for a few hours. Dropping a few kisses on Tennessee's silky skin, Gavin ran a hand along her body, tracing her curves like he wanted to carve them in his mind.

After two or three passages from the young woman's knee to her shoulder, the ex-police officer's hand went up her thigh but reached under the woollen dress she had on this time. His fingertips softly stroke the flat line of her stomach as his hand continued all the way up her chest to rest on her soft, warm and round breast. Gavin didn't even care about how Tennessee's dress was lifted above her hips as he did, nor how the girl was completely naked under that dress.

Planting a kiss on her skin from time to time, the man felt her body gradually waking up in his arms. Surprisingly enough, the gorgeous young woman didn't fight him off. She just kept her eyes closed, the shadow of a smile on her peaceful and pretty face, letting out a few sighs here and there as her partner pressed himself against her. Tennessee slowly, really slowly, rolled on her stomach and crossed her arms under her head as a makeshift pillow.

Encouraged by the girl's unexpectedly pacific behaviour, Gavin gently straddled her legs, just above her knees, and ran both his hands under her dress from her tailbone to her neck. He accompanied the progression of his hands with long, lascivious kisses along her spine, taking the dress off the young woman at the end of his course. Once again, the gorgeous young woman under him didn't make a move

Gavin could feel the first trickles of desire flowing through his veins and the first twitches of his forming erection. For a man that felt a little uneasy about "initiating" sex the night before, he was quite straightforward this morning, as if the well-being he felt got rid of any remanence of hesitation he could have about it.

Every single move he made was slow, gentle and sensual. Seems like Gavin found a way to stop time after all… and a pleasant one. With more kisses and tenderness, the man gave the pretty raven-haired girl a good back rub. As the ex-police officer's lips traced a line from one of her shoulders to the other for the umpteenth time, Tennessee couldn't repress a soft chuckle, amused by Gavin's sudden boldness.

\- "What is that for?" she asked lightheartedly, turning her head on the side to catch a glimpse of the man behind her.

Gavin took the opportunity to place a soft kiss on her cheek before he gave the young woman the best answer he had:

\- "I don't know," he said softly, with an incredibly lecherous voice, hoarse from his recent wake-up. "Today just feels good."

It didn't provide any answer to the raven-haired girl, but she willingly accepted to play along. The way he woke her up put her in a good mood. The man kept covering her back with warm, sensual and lustful kisses, gently but hungrily devouring her skin. Gavin traced her spine with the tip of his tongue from her shoulder-blades to the small of her back as his hands sneakily moved up from her waist to the side of her breast. He applied more pressure on her with the palm of his hands, then slid them back down along the delightful curves of her body, taking a firm grip on her buttocks at the end of the way.

The pretty young woman laughed quietly, pushing herself up on her elbows to look at the ex-police officer. She pointed at something with her chin.

\- "Your bird," she told him as she tried to suppress another laugh, "He's watching again."

Gavin looked the way she pointed at and saw the little blackbird, seated in his makeshift nest, his two bright and round yellow eyes locked on them. The man laughed too, then reached for the girl's dress, on the ground by their sides.

\- "I'm borrowing this again," he said with the same randy tone and a crooked smile.

Gavin placed the dress over his bulletproof vest again, shielding Ringo's "innocent" eyes from the duo's upcoming activities. He didn't move away from Tennessee and only bent forward to reach for the bird's nest. As he did so, the ex-police officer took the opportunity to pick a condom from the backpack next to it before re-centring his weight and straightening his back.

Gavin stuck the square foil between his lips and resumed the erotic massage he was providing earlier. He alternated between a relaxing and pleasant massage and some teasing then backed off a little on the gorgeous young woman's legs. Now sitting on her calves, he brushed his fingers behind her thighs, slowly sliding his hands between her legs. He ran his fingertips up her inner thighs and lightly traced the outside of her parts. The man's knuckles gently passed over her folds, the calluses on his hands tickling Tennessee's sensitive skin now and then. She sighed softly, visibly enjoying Gavin's caresses.

Taking his time to explore the girl's skin, the ex-police officer's strokes on her body gradually became bolder and her slit was soon glistening with her excitement. When the finger he ran over her length got slick with her juices, Gavin felt like he played that game long enough. He pulled the waistband of his boxer briefs over his fully erected cock and wrapped his fingers at its base, rubbing his shaft on the soft skin of her buttocks.

The man made his way between them, sliding his erection up and down a few times as he firmly pressed his fingers on the soft mounds of flesh under his hands. A low groan slipped through his lips as the desire he felt for the gorgeous young woman sent a wave of warmth down his abdomen. His last passage between Tennessee's butt-cheeks brought him between her legs, rubbing along the length of her slit and drawing a louder growl out of him. His impatience was beginning to take over his mind.

His cock now glistening with the girl's excitement, Gavin sat back on his heels, making sure he kept his weight off of her, then cautiously opened the square foil he previously kept between his lips with expert moves. With the habit of the gesture, he unrolled the condom on his shaft, impatient to feel Tennessee's warmth around him.

Below him, the young woman was just as impatient. Her skin was entirely covered in goosebumps and she craved the ex-police officer's touch. However, she remained docile and almost completely immobile, hardly swaying her hips from side to side as she nicely rested her head on her arms. Despite her passive attitude, a long, powerful shiver ran up her spine when the pretty raven-haired girl felt the tip of Gavin's cock at her entrance. He was just pressing himself against her a little, but Tennessee let out a lascivious moan, increasing the tingling sensation in the man's stomach.

Her legs still pressed together, the ex-police officer slowly entered her, his hands grasping on her rear even harder as the girl gasped softly. In this position, the gorgeous young woman felt Gavin's girth perfectly, while he could feel her body squeezing tightly around him. Sensations were multiplied tenfold on both sides.

Gavin moved slowly inside the pretty raven-haired girl as he resumed the massage he was giving her earlier. Despite his slow and sensual motions, Tennessee's sighs and moans were quickly filling the air even though she tried so desperately to hold them back. Every time the man buried himself in the depths of her body, she would get a little louder and he would struggle to hold himself back a little more.

Every thrust directly hit _ that _ specific spot that sent new tingles in her entire body, time after time. And the way he rubbed inside her… The young woman never thought a slower rhythm could feel as great as the ferocity she would usually be asking for. She could already feel that familiar pressure in her lower abdomen growing with every new move the ex-police officer made inside her, building up quickly. Gavin felt just the same and increased the rhythm, trying his best not to be too hard on the pretty raven-haired girl.

For a while, he kept varying the rhythm of their embrace, slow and sensual at times, then a little faster and faster again, going harder, deeper inside her, before going back to his lascivious movements. The strength he was applying on her body gradually became uneven as the man struggled to hold himself back and Tennessee's moan couldn't remain quiet anymore. She dug her nails in the sleeping bag under her shivering body and the manifestations of her pleasure grew louder, thrust after thrusts. An aphrodisiac warmth was now pulsing through her entire body. The raven-haired girl could hit her release any time from now.

A bead of sweat rolled down Gavin's jaw and dropped on the young woman's sculptural back as he deepened his thrusts. Tennessee gasped and tightly clenched her hands into fists as she felt the burning sensation in her stomach bubbling up some more, ready to burst and send jolts of pleasure through her veins. Only a few more energetic thrusts were needed for her to reach her release. The girl's body squeezed so tightly on Gavin that he felt like it was pushing him out. Surprised by such a pleasant sensation, he almost lost his balance, steadying himself with his hands on both sides of the young woman's trembling body as she muffled her last exclamation of pleasure into the sleeping bag's fabric.

They were still catching their breaths when Gavin rolled on his side, his arms tightly locked around his partner to bring her along with him as he changed the orientation of their bodies. Now laying in Tennessee's back, the man ran a hand up and down her thigh, then brought her leg to a right in front of her. Gavin left a few feverish kisses on the nape of her neck, the salty taste of her skin lingering on his lips. As his hand came back up above her hip, the pretty raven-haired girl placed hers over it and followed its progression.

The ex-police officer slowly explored the skin of her abdomen, even though he knew the young woman's body like the back of his hand now. He drew an arc from her bellybutton to the crease under her generous breast, getting a tight grip on the soft mound of flesh as he gently resumed moving inside the beautiful girl laying in his arms.

Gavin wrapped his other arms around her waist and his hips were soon slamming against her rear, spurred on by the way she gasped every time he reached that far into her. To him, it sounded like pure ecstasy. He progressively thrusted deeper, faster and harder into the pretty girl's body. The volume at which she expressed her pleasure matched the intensity of their embrace. As their rhythm got even wilder, the bird hidden beneath Tennessee's dress shyly chirped in confusion, but neither of the young adults seemed to hear anything.

The young woman's fingers were now tightly locked onto Gavin's arm. She was so out of breath, taken aback by the intensity of their connection, that the world began to spin around her while the trickles of her second orgasm manifested themselves in her stomach. Focused on the pleasure rising from between her legs to her lower abdomen, Tennessee never realized that Gavin fell on his back at some point, pulling her on top of him without parting from her even just a little.

Her back pressed on his chest, the pretty girl's entire body was now offered to him, granting his hands free access to any inch of skin they may want to explore. Another wave of desire rushed through his veins and the man strengthened his grip on her, getting a solid hold on her waist to support the young woman as his hips roughly met the flesh of her buttocks again. Despite being on top, she had absolutely no control over anything. The rhythm, the depth and the strength of Gavin's thrusts were all up to him.

He sent their bodies into an animalistic dance, blasting the girl from below. The pleasure that had been slowly turning itself into a second orgasm skyrocketed. Tennessee raised her hand and found the way to the ex-police officer's hair, unconsciously tugging on him as she was losing herself in the throes of passion. Gavin was hitting new areas in the depths of her body and making her feel a pleasure she never knew existed. Her loud exclamations of ecstasy reverberated into his body and the man couldn't resist the urge to bite on the soft piece of flesh between the girl's neck and shoulder.

Another cry of blissfulness echoed in the air before Tennessee's body squeezed around him once more, cutting the last tie he had with any notion of control. Gavin wildly rode the gorgeous young woman through her second orgasm, groaning, huffing and growling as he got close to his own release. Her body deliciously trembled in his arms as her voice kept filling his ears, but it's the twitches of her hole around his cock that finally threw him off the edge. He bit harder on Tennessee's shoulder, a discreet yelp slipping through her deliciously parted lips, as the result of his orgasm filled the condom.

The spasms of the ex-police officer's shaft inside her as it released his seed into the preservative felt utterly gratifying as if her partner's pleasure suddenly mattered to her. It was in total opposition to her usual state of mind, but it left a feeling of satisfaction in her subconscious she might remember later…or not.

The duo fell together on their sides, out of breath, covered in sweat and clinging to each other, enjoying the haze that followed their intercourse. If she had a seemingly romantic side, Tennessee might have been saying they were meant to have sex together with the way they were both ending up quite satisfied, time after time.

As he always did, Gavin placed light kisses on the skin within his reach while his frantic heartbeat gradually slowed down. She would never admit it, but the pretty raven-haired girl was beginning to enjoy the small rituals and all the other attention the man had for her in these intimate moments. So much she even wondered why she ever refused them, since it had been clear from the beginning between them that intimacy had nothing to do with feelings. Feelings were what Tennessee always feared the most, but right now she wasn't able to remember her fears or concerns, simply enjoying the last shivers running away on her skin. She turned her head to the side and gently rubbed her nose along Gavin's jawline.

\- "Mmhhh…You should fucking wake me up like this every morning," she said, her voice slightly resembling the slurred speech she would have if she was inebriated.

Gavin squeezed her in his strong arms, breathing in the floral scent of her skin as he rested his head on her shoulder.

\- "If it makes you happy," he replied in a low voice against her ear, "I'll do it as often as possible."

Tennessee blushed heavily, suddenly glad the man couldn't see her face. She chuckled nervously, hoping he wouldn't notice how flustered she was.

\- "Liar."

\- "Who said I'm lying?" he said, visibly in a playful mood.

\- "You're getting greedy," the girl laughed as he dropped a short series of quick kisses in her neck.

\- "Maybe," Gavin replied as he propped himself on his elbow to move his kisses to the top of her shoulder.

\- "You're lying again. Weren't you taught lying is bad?"

Tennessee was giggling louder, surprisingly relaxed and casual after the short embarrassment she felt a minute ago. Maybe she was getting more comfortable with the ex-police officer and the way he had to care for her? Was it just out of habit, or was it something scarier, like actually developing some kind of affection for him? Luckily, she wasn't able to think about it for the moment and these thoughts never crossed her mind. Otherwise, this enjoyable moment of complicity they had together would've met an abrupt, unpleasant and early termination.

She never maintained a relationship over a few weeks, just the time to spend the night with her "partner" two or three times, at most. Of course, it's not like she had other options here but, even though she was long past that point with Gavin, the young woman wasn't feeling the urge to run away or voluntarily screw up their relationship.

The pretty raven-haired girl was feeling quite content, just like the man by her side felt since he woke up, Maybe it was the bright sun shining in the cloudless sky on this warm autumnal morning, or maybe it wasn't, but the two young adults felt especially relaxed and carefree that day.

Despite the difficulties they encountered until now and those they'll be encountering in the future, as well as the heavy responsibilities weighing on their shoulders, they had momentarily forgotten about all this and were simply enjoying spending some time together lightheartedly and without the fences they usually kept between them.

They were still bickering in a friendly tone, teasing each other mercilessly, when a loud and high-pitched "QUACK!" interrupted them. Once again, they forgot about the poor Ringo, "blindfolded" in the corner. The two friends shortly looked at each other in confusion, then burst into laughter. Tennessee reached for her bra, put it back on and gathered the rest of her clothes, scattered everywhere in their tent, still giggling.

As she was dressing up, Gavin removed the girl's dress from the frame his bulletproof vest created, freeing the little bird from his tiny makeshift tent, then handed the dress over to its rightful owner.

Thankfully, this pleasant morning wasn't over yet. The tiniest thing breaking their symbiosis usually tended to put an end to this kind of moment. Instead of hastily packing their equipment and eating a small breakfast on-the-go, the duo unhurriedly got ready for the day then went on a stroll to look for Ringo's meal.

They looked for berries and bugs for the bird together at first, but they quickly split up, knowing neither of them would go too far. Gavin was about to make it back to the camp when he heard the girl screaming in terror. He spun around, expecting to see her since she was rarely getting out his line of sight, but when he laid his golden gaze on the rugged landscape of the mountain, covered in dreary green vegetation that was slowly turning to yellow and red, Tennessee was nowhere to be seen. The man's heart skipped a beat then immediately sank into his stomach. A strong rush of adrenaline pulsed through his veins and he dashed forward.

\- "Tennessee!?" He called out.

Where was the raven-haired girl he grew to like over the month they spent together? Okay, she had an incredibly foul mouth and enough backtalk to scare any politician away, but Gavin liked her. Why wasn't he able to see her at all times like he usually would? What happened for her to stroll away and scream like that?

Gavin never heard such a terrified sound coming out of her. Tennessee was a brave one. She didn't make a sound when they stumbled on that hoard of mutants back at the CDC center nor when these mutants chased them down the hallway. She didn't flinch in front of the bad injury he got that day either, nor complained about the considerable amount of time she would need to put him back up on his feet. Instead, the girl went on a scavenging trip, all alone, to gather the supplies his wound required to heal correctly, even though he told her not to.

His heart pounding in his chest and the blood in his veins burning like molten lava, Gavin sprinted in the direction Tennessee's voice came from without thinking twice. Unfortunately, after maybe fifty meters, he stopped, not knowing which way would lead him to the pretty raven-haired girl anymore. The man looked around him frantically, searching for any signs of his partner's presence. If she wasn't screaming again, he might not be able to find her. In these woods, it was as easy to get lost than it was difficult to find something or someone.

A strand of barbed wire circled Gavin's heart like a snake would wrap itself around its prey. Terrible thoughts flooded his mind as panic slowly began to blur the ex-police officer's judgment. He waited for the sound of her voice for a few seconds, but they felt like an eternity as they were consumed by the venom of his fear. What happened to her? Was she in danger? Was she hurt? Or even worse? Where was she, for god's sake! These thoughts drew the blood off his face as the barbed wire tightened around his heart.

Gavin felt utterly irrational, but to think that Tennessee could be gone forever tore his heart apart, leaving him in great pain. He had failed to keep the girl safe. He had failed to protect her. It was happening all over again… It was all his fault, again. A burning sensation raised from his stomach to his throat as he filled his lungs with air to let it out in a desperate call.

\- "Nessie!" he shouted.

\- "Kyaaaaaaaah!"

The high-pitched complaint of fear came from further into the woods, maybe another hundred meters on his right. Adrenaline surged into the man's entire body and he dashed towards the origin of that noise.

\- "Nessie!"

His race led him into a small area where trees spaced up, creating what would have been a nice little meadow if Gavin wasn't desperately searching for his partner. Tennessee was on the ground, sitting between her calves as she was frantically ruffling her hair.

Suddenly all the tension he accumulated left the ex-police officer's body and he was finally able to breathe again. He didn't even realize he stopped breathing. She was alive, apparently safe and sound. Then why did she scream like that? Confused, Gavin trotted to her and kneeled by the pretty raven haired-girl.

He wasn't entirely reassured yet. The man placed his hand on her shoulder but she didn't stop tousling her hair, almost desperately.

\- "Take it off!" she squealed on a high-pitched note the man never suspected Tennessee could reach. "Take it off!"

Gavin's eyes widened as he stood still, keeping a tight grip on the girl as she kept panicking. He leaned on one side, then the other, searching for the thing he was supposed to take off, but he couldn't find anything with the girl squirming like that. Gavin slid his hands down Tennessee's arms until he met her fingers then tightened his grip on them.

\- "Nessie, please, calm down", he said in a soothing voice. "I can't see anything.

\- "Fucking take that shit off, for fuck's sake!" she yelled at him as she promptly took her hands off her hair to press her closed fists on her thighs.

\- "What am I supposed to take off?" asked, still searching for the cause of Tennessee's hysteria.

\- "The FUCKING SPIDER!"

The ex-police officer froze for a split second, completely dumbfounded, but he quickly got a hold of himself and stood higher on his knees for a better searching angle. Gavin cautiously brushed a first lock of the pretty girl's thick raven hair.

\- "Stay still," Gavin said softly, hoping to reassure her a little.

Tennessee stopped wiggling but kept trembling and whining, obviously uneasy and impatient but doing her best to do as she was told. Gavin thoroughly searched the young woman's hair with slow, careful moves, looking for their little unwanted friend. One lock of dark hair at the time, he quickly realized how thick of a mane she had. No wonder why her ponytail had such an enticing volume. The young woman easily had twice as much hair than most of the girls he met.

As Gavin was inspecting Tennessee's "mane", he couldn't help but notice how soft and silky her hair was. For a second, he wondered why he wasn't running his hands through it more often. However, before he could find an answer or push his thoughts any further since the arachnid he was looking for finally appeared before his eyes. It was the most average spider, the kind you could meet anywhere. A dull, brown body, no bigger than his thumb, the eight little legs included… With the young woman's reaction, Gavin was almost expecting to stumble upon a venomous spider or at least an impressively big one. Unfortunately, when he carefully got Tennessee's hair out of the way to get a hold of the little arachnid, some of its legs brushed on the girl's neck and another high-pitched, terrorized scream pierced the ex-police officer's eardrums.

\- "Kyyyaaaaaaaah!"

It's as he freed the spider from his partner's raven hair that the bell finally rang into Gavin's mind: The strong, dauntless and bold young woman was afraid of spiders. Astounded, he closed his hand on the eight-legged creature and pulled it away from Tennessee.

She was still not moving, tensed and trembling when the man scooted over to her side. An unfamiliar light was sparkling in the gold of his irises. He showed the girl his closed hand as she peeped through her thick eyelashes.

\- "There, I got it," he said as he slightly opened his hand.

\- "Kyaaah!" The girl screamed again, “Don't bring that little shit anywhere near me!"

Tennessee backed off, as much as her position was allowing her to, but it wasn't much, at least not enough to her taste. Despite the complete absence of tears in her gorgeous sage green eyes, the young woman was undoubtedly terrified.

Her white, perfectly aligned teeth were tightly clenched and her eyes were wide open. Her chest heaved and sank with every breath she was taking. Her body was so tense that Gavin feared she would break if he touched her. The ex-police officer turned around and freed the spider at the bottom of a small bush where it quickly disappeared and faced Tennessee again. His face was serious, but his eyes were laughing. The pretty raven-haired girl immediately noticed and she pointed a finger at him, the fear on her face quickly turning into anger.

\- "Don't you fucking dare to laugh about this!" she said, "The slightest giggle and I swear I'm fucking tearing your throat out with my teeth!"

These words, in the mouth of such a petite and delicate young woman, was the final straw to Gavin's self-control. He looked at the ground and his shoulders twitched. A split second later, the man tipped his head back and burst into laughter. The fierce expression on Tennessee's face melted away, baffled by her partner's reaction. She bluntly threatened him and his first reaction was to laugh? In fact, Gavin wasn't simply laughing. He was laughing his heart out. So hard the girl thought he would pee his pants.

The ex-police officer wrapped his arms around his abdomen as he kept laughing. His ribs must've started to hurt. Tennessee never saw the man laughing so wholeheartedly and she gradually, little by little, she lost herself to the pleasant sound of Gavin's laughter. She was completely mesmerized. The young woman simply sat there, a shocked expression on her face. A few seconds later, she snapped. Anger came back running and she darted forward, literally jumping on him.

\- "You fucking bastard!" she cussed as she pinned him to the ground.

Gavin was about to stop laughing when the pretty raven-haired girl dashed on him, throwing him into another blitz of sheer hilarity. Obviously, it only angered her some more. She clenched her hands into tiny fists and she repeatedly hit the man's chest. Unfortunately, she was no match against his bulletproof vest.

Through his laughter, the ex-police officer imprisoned Tennessee's wrists in his large hands and kept them pressed against him, drawing infuriated utterances from the young woman as she fiercely fought his grip, to no avail. Gavin kept laughing, his cheeks turning bright red as he was losing his breath until the girl finally gave up. Maybe a minute later, the man stopped laughing, but he had to put a lot of effort into it. The way Tennessee tried to jump at him and immediately failed was way too funny to him at that moment. She was still straddling him and glaring at him with anger, waiting for the moment he would free her hands.

When Gavin let go of her wrists, the gorgeous young woman immediately got off of him to sit on the ground. Gavin sat up, a wide smile remaining on his face. The pretty raven-haired girl's sage green eyes were flashing with sheer ire and that smile exasperated her even more. She gave the man a strong punch on the arm. He could have dodged that blow easily, but he figured out it might be better to let her hit him. The whole situation was quite funny, but pushing Tennessee any further could change everything.

The young woman crossed her arms in front of her, sitting on her heels. The good mood the ex-police officer brought over her in the morning was gone. Wiping tears of laughter at the corner of his eye, Gavin placed his arm over his stomach. His entire abdomen was hurt from too much laughing, but the feeling of happiness it left behind was worth it. It had been so long since the last time he actually found something funny. This short break into the constant gloominess of their new lives was like a breath of fresh air after a long trip underwater.

\- "So you're afraid of spiders?" Gavin dared to ask.

Tennessee puffed her cheeks, a pink line crossing her face from one side to the other. She obviously didn't feel like answering his question.

\- "Shut up!" she pouted, averting her gaze.

\- "I'm just curious. How did you manage to survive out in the wild with all these mutants when you're terrified at the sight of a tiny little spider?"

It was probably the first time Gavin wasn't the one being teased. It was more like Tennessee to make fun of him, not the opposite, but the look on her face was utterly cute and the ex-police officer wanted to see it a little more. The pretty girl was both ashamed and ferociously denying everything, despite the fact she had been exposed. She was grumbling on her side, building an exhaustive list of all the curse words and insults she knew, when Gavin got up and walked up to her.

\- "C'mon," he gently said as he extended a hand to her, "Let's go. I bet Ringo is hungry and waiting for us."

Tennessee glared at him, apparently not quite ready to forgive and forget, but after a long, vanquished sigh, she still reached for the helping hand in front of her.

\- "I think I said it already," she said in a neutral tone, "but I hate you."

Gavin chuckled and helped her to get up, laughter still sparkling into the gold of his irises.

-"Glad to know it didn't change," he replied with an amused smile.

\- "Pfffft!"

The pretty raven-haired girl tried to walk past him, but her partner kept a tight grip on her hand. Of course, she tried to pull it away, but she quickly stopped fighting, knowing Gavin wouldn't let go. He was way stronger than she was, and he could do anything he wanted with her. However, he rarely opposed her in any way, always respecting her decisions and her limits. It probably contributed to the relationship they built, brick by brick, over the last month, even though it felt like they'd been together for a long time.

The two young adults began to walk back towards their camping site. The silence between them wasn't awkward anymore, they were long past that point now. Unfortunately for Tennessee, the ex-police officer had one more question.

\- "How did you end up with that spider in your hair?" he asked softly.

Tennessee looked at him with fire in her eyes, as if she was wondering how he dared to bring that up again.

\- "Can't you forget about this?" she said with exasperation.

\- "Well if you want me to keep an eye out for spiders..."

\- "You're such a jerk."

\- "Look at who's speaking," Gavin chuckled.

\- "Fine!" the young woman sighed, "I kneeled down to pick up some blackberries and that bitch fell from a nearby tree. Landed straight onto my head and hid in my hair..."

Gavin imagined the scene and repressed another chuckle. He laughed enough already. The ex-police officer squeezed her hand and looked at her from the corner of his eye. His voice was low and gentle.

\- "You know," he said, "I would've been keeping you safe from spiders anyway..."

\- "Shut up," Tennessee replied in the same mellow tone, half a smile at the corner of her lips.

They walked for a minute or two, in silence, until the pretty raven-haired girl pushed her partner against a tree, pressing herself against him. Caught off guard, Gavin couldn't stop the motion or avoid the girl's move. She lifted her head, her gorgeous raspberry red lips brushing against his jaw and her hands grasping on the sides of his bulletproof vest.

Tennessee had that luscious glow into her beautiful sage green irises, the one that was lighting a fire into anyone's chest, that glint the man knew quite well by now. She stood on the tip of her toes to reach Gavin's lips, softly caressing them with hers as their breaths mingled. Not so long ago, that simple provocation would've gotten Gavin's face all hot and red, but now that he got to know the fierce raven-haired girl, things were a little different.

They developed a fairly pleasant complicity and he got used to her eternal naughty tone. It's not that he wasn't confident enough to face her ambiguity before, but he wasn't used to be THAT open about sex. Especially when his interlocutor was a gorgeous young woman he knew nothing about.

Gavin had always been quite forbidding to others. Only a very few individuals made it through his defences and really got to know him. When he thought there was no one left, that no one could've made it that far, Tennessee appeared and proved him wrong. The young man grew to like her, and now that he did, he would protect her with his own life if he needed to, just like any of his loved ones.

Despite the chaos reigning on the world and the loss of his dearest friends, the lone wolf found a new friend into the impish young woman that jumped on him not so long ago. Half a smile on his face, Gavin cocked a brow as he looked at the pretty raven-haired girl.

\- "Nessie what do you think you're doing?" he chuckled.

The young woman smiled. That alluring predatory smile she had every time she was setting another trap he was supposed to fall into. Unfortunately, the ex-police officer was quite aware of the trick now.

\- "What do you think I'm doing?" she sultrily whispered against his lips, leaning on him some more.

\- "Trying to get something out of me again," Gavin replied.

\- "Wrong," the girl said with that enticing smokey voice of hers, “I'm warning you.”

\- "Warning me?

\- "Do not make fun of me again," she told him as she pressed her hand on his crotch.

As the man's body was reacting to her touch, Tennessee suddenly parted from him, turning her back to him in a swift move and walked away, resuming her progression towards the camp.

\- "Oh and if I were you, I'd sleep with one eye open," she added, like it was nothing, without looking at him.

\- "You already keep me from sleeping at night, almost every night," Gavin argued with a soft chuckle as he caught up on her, a grin on his lips.

\- “It wouldn't be that fun this time," Tennessee laughed.

\- "You almost scared me there."

A hint of complicity was glowing into the gold of Gavin's irises. His partner could see the beginning of an impish expression on his face and she couldn't help but feel happy about it. Yes, she liked it when he was blushing and stammering, but it could be even funnier if the ex-police officer was playing along with her.

\- "Oh really?" the young woman said, "What did I do to worry such a strong, handsome man?"

For a second, Gavin was pleased to know she thought of him as highly as he was thinking of her, but he kept it for himself. He felt quite lighthearted right now and he was tempted to tease the girl some more.

\- “I thought the very demanding girl you are was going to ask for more… again," he said.

Tennessee suppressed her laugh, amused by how bold Gavin was that day. She might never admit it, but he was one of the first few individuals to make it far enough on the road to her heart to be called a friend.

\- "Are you complaining?" The girl replied with a falsely offended tone, "You know, I can satisfy myself without you."

\- "Right," the ex-police officer said softly, doubting she could with how often she was coming at him to have sex.

\- "Pfffffft!" was all Tennessee found to say

Their camp finally got within their sight. The short break they took that morning was over and the two young adults had to go back to their usual routine: eat, pack up, walk, settle down, eat again and sleep.

Gavin and the pretty raven-haired girl already ate, but the blackbird waiting for them in the tent was still waiting for his meal. Tennessee picked up the feathered creature and settled it down on a big flat rock, spreading the loot resulting from their gathering mission in front of him. Ringo cackled happily, pecking on a berry like there was no tomorrow while the pretty raven-haired girl shook the dust off the blanket she used to craft Ringo's nest then folded it to pack it with the rest of their belongings. The bird wouldn't need it since she would be using her scarf like she did the other day.

While she busied herself around the blackbird, Gavin dismantled their tent and made sure everything was packed properly. As Ringo was almost done with his meal, he took out his map and looked at it for a moment. They had a good rhythm but it wasn't exactly what he expected either. With their current progression into the mountains, they would need at least two more weeks to cross the chain and go down the mountain where they should stay on the right path to their destination. It wasn't that bad, but the ex-police officer thought he should be keeping a closer look at their progression from now on. Temperatures would get horribly cold if they were falling behind, especially if they were still up in the mountain in two weeks. Gavin would do his best to get their team down before that, but for now, he had to get ready to leave with the gorgeous raven-haired young woman and their unexpected feathered friend.

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  



End file.
